A Single Call
by hinatasgreatestfan
Summary: Naruto was about to give up to Kiba in the preliminaries, when he heard her call.  With new confidence, he refused to give up.
1. Single Call

Chapter 1

How could she know that a single cry to the boy she admired would make all the difference in the world? She couldn't, of course. Yet that would prove to be the case. Hinata was watching closely as Naruto faced Kiba during the preliminary round of the final chunin exam. She wanted to support Naruto; after all the years of watching him, she had come to admire him greatly, so of course she wanted to root for him. However, Kiba was her teammate, so she was torn. Who should she cheer for? Who should she support? Her teammate, or the boy she admired? So it was for that reason that she remained silent for much of the match.

xxxxx

Naruto had said he did his best work with a handicap, which was generally true, and yet Kiba and Akamaru were soundly beating him. He couldn't keep up with Kiba. The feral boy was just too fast. It was all Naruto could do to keep on his feet. He was happy that everyone was watching his fight, but he was getting annoyed that he was getting his butt kicked with everyone watching. No one had ever believed in him, and now he was proving them right. DAMN IT! Why did he have to prove them all right like this? And why was no one calling for him to do better? No one. His head hung in shame. No one cared that he was losing here. No one. All he needed was just one person to care for him. Just one. That's all he needed, but it wasn't happening. He should just forfeit. No one cared anyway.

xxxxx

Hinata had her Byakugan activated and she was focusing on Naruto. She saw his head hang in shame. She saw that he was thinking no one cared. She realized that he was about to forfeit. She saw it. She couldn't believe it. He had finally given up caring anymore. NO! She couldn't allow this. She had to do something. She had to let him know that someone cared. Her! Not that anyone else cared what she thought, but maybe it would help him just to know that someone cared about him. But how could she do that when he was fighting her teammate? No, forget it, she had to let him know she cared. She gathered her courage. This was it, her one chance. She had to do something and do it NOW. She opened her mouth.

xxxxx

Naruto's hand was rising. It was the only part of him that was. He was ready to give up, seeing as no one cared how well he did anyway. They'd probably all be glad to see him give up. They all wanted him to fail. It didn't matter how hard he tried or how much effort he put into his life. No one noticed, no one cared. And his new technique would be wasted on his audience. They all wanted Kiba to win, so why not give them what they wanted? That's when he heard it.

"NO, NARUTO, DON'T GIVE UP!" EVERYONE heard it. And EVERYONE turned to look at the young girl who had suddenly screamed this. It was Hinata. Shy, quiet Hinata had just yelled out so loud that everyone in the arena had heard her. And Kiba was her teammate. How could she do that? And yet she had. She had cheered Naruto to beat her teammate. He turned and looked at Kiba. Okay, so one person did care. Kiba had stopped and was standing still in shock at Hinata's outburst. Naruto felt his confidence return along with his determination to win. He saw that Kiba wasn't going to be moving for a moment, so he took his chance. He formed a hand sign he was all too familiar with.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" He yelled and four clones appeared and circled Kiba. One clone rushed forward and delivered an uppercut to Kiba's jaw, sending him into the air. The original ran up that clone's back and jumped into the air while the other three clones kicked Kiba higher. The original did a spinning kick into the back of Kiba's head while yelling out "NARUTO BARRAGE!"

Kiba was sent flying into the floor, face-first. Upon contact, he was knocked out. Naruto landed a few feet away, panting heavily. He turned and looked up at Hinata, who was smiling at him. So she did care. She had really wanted him to win and he had. It was all thanks to her. He saw her saying something but couldn't hear her. He just knew what she said. "Well done, Naruto." That's what she said. He knew it without hearing her. He owed her this win. He would return the favor to her somehow, he swore it. For now, he walked calmly to the ramp and back up to the balcony while medical ninja were removing Kiba on a stretcher. As he was passing Hinata, he stopped.

"Thank you Hinata." He smiled at her. She blushed.

"For what, Naruto?" she asked him.

"When you cheered for me, I knew that someone cared. It gave me the confidence and the courage to keep fighting. Without you, I would have forfeited the match. I only won because of you. So, thank you." Then he looked up and saw the next names that were chosen for the next match. Hinata Hyuga vs. Neji Hyuga. She followed his eyes and gasped. He saw her fear and whispered to her, "Don't worry Hinata. I beat Kiba. You can beat Neji, too." She looked at him, smiled, blushed slightly, then nodded. Yes, she would beat Neji. For Naruto.

As Hinata walked down the stairs to the arena floor, she saw Neji coming down from the other side. She looked up and met his eyes, hesitant and shy, as usual. She cursed herself for her weakness. She noticed something as she was coming down. Naruto had a single closed chakra point. She hadn't noticed before. Oh well, it didn't seem to be bothering him too much, but she wondered when it happened. Then Neji was before her, staring at her with that cold look in his eyes. As her pupil-less eyes met his, she saw hatred, of her, of the main branch, and of her father. She cringed from his cold stare.

Neji said to her, "Hinata, withdraw from this match. You cannot fight against fate. And your fate was sealed the moment I was chosen as your opponent. You will lose this match unless you withdraw now."

She shook her head, thinking of Naruto. "I will not run from you. Not this day, cousin." He looked surprised, then she told him, "This is the first time the one I admire has been watching me. I will not fail, and I will not run, and I will NOT humiliate myself in front of him. Not today, not ever. So come at me, cousin." The two cousins activated their blood trait at the same time, veins bulging around their eyes. Then they charged.

Neji and Hinata's battle was quite the sight to behold. Chakra flew everywhere. They seemed to land a glancing blow once in a while, but the chakra was what made it a sight to see. It was flying off every blow. And that was what made their "Gentle Fist" technique deadly, of course. Even a glancing blow could cause serious damage. Hinata was getting frustrated; her reach wasn't as long as Neji's, so every attack she did, he blocked easily, and she was having trouble even getting close to him. Then she spotted an opening and she placed her hand directly on his chest. He froze.

She grinned. She had him. Then he slowly rolled up her sleeve and she saw marks on her skin. Wait. He hadn't...had he? Apparently he had. Her arms had no chakra in them. The Gentle Fist had failed her. All she had done was touch him. He had closed the chakra points in both her arms. All of them. She backed away, frightened now. A yin-yang symbol appeared below Neji, then he charged at her.

"Eight Trigrams 64 Palms!" he yelled out, then started hitting Hinata, letting all his rage at the main house go into this one attack. "Two palms! Four palms! Eight Palms! Sixteen Palms! Thirty-two Palms! Sixty-four Palms!" As he said each one, he hit Hinata's chakra points till he'd gotten sixty-four of them at the end. They were all closed. He turned away from Hinata as she fell to the ground. He called up to Naruto. "This will be your fate as well, loser." He started to walk away, as Hinata slowly regained her feet. She was in his blind spot and she knew it. If only she could have used her chakra, maybe she could have done something. Then she heard it.

"Don't give up Hinata! Fight him!" It was Naruto. Kakashi tried to restrain the boy, but he called out to her, "Hinata, look up here." She did. She saw that closed chakra point he had again. He saw her watching and said to her, "You need to open them, Hinata. Do this." And as she watched, he forced a lot of chakra into the chakra point. So he had known it was closed. As she watched, to her amazement, his chakra point expanded and finally burst back open. He seemed to feel a twinge of pain, but he didn't seem to mind as it stayed open. Neji wasn't watching that, he had deactivated his Byakugan. His mistake, Hinata thought. She followed Naruto's example. With her much better chakra control, it didn't take long till all of her chakra points sprang back open. She gasped, but damn it, it worked. Neji still had his back to her, his Byakugan off, as he turned to tell Hayate to call the match.

"I don't think so, cousin." The Eight Trigrams yin yang symbol appeared below Hinata now. He turned at her voice and she saw him looking at her. She grinned and continued, "Your turn. Eight Trigrams 64 Palms!" And she rushed at him, doing the same combo of hits he had done to her just minutes before. She turned off every single one of his chakra points in a single move. He fell to the floor, unable to move. She looked at Hayate and told him, "You can call the match now. He's done." Hayate agreed and called the match. Hinata had won. Before leaving, she walked over to Neji and held a hand out to him. He took it slowly, and she helped him to his feet. She told Neji, "I know you think fate is what caused this, and that you struggle against your fate. Neji, before today, I had never used that move. EVER." He looked at her in shock. "I told you, the one I admire was watching me. I wasn't about to give up in front of him. I did what I had to do. And it was him that allowed me to reopen my chakra points like that." While she was talking to him, she had moved them off the arena. She stopped at the bottom of the ramp. Then she looked at him and said quietly, "I'm sorry for hurting you, cousin." He looked even more surprised. Then she extended a hand to him. "Please, cousin, let's be friends, and together, we will fight your fate. I will get that seal removed from you one day, I swear it as a Hyuga."

Neji was in shock. He had always thought the main branch members were nothing but his masters, yet here Hinata was, extending a hand in friendship and swearing to help him fight his fate and beat it. He slowly took her offered hand and nodded. Then she activated her Byakugan. He knew it! Now she was going to attack him again! But no, she extended her hand and touched him gently, barely even making contact. He looked at where she touched. Then she moved on. She was reopening his chakra points. He couldn't believe it! But she was. He smiled at her, a genuine smile, for the first time since his father died. "Thank you, Lady Hinata."

"Just Hinata, cousin, please. As I said, we're friends now. This was just a show of faith. I trust you." He nodded to her, bowing slightly, as she continued, "And no more bowing to me either. I told you, we're friends, equals. You are no longer my servant." He looked at her in shock; she just smiled.

"You are too kind, Hinata. Why are you so kind after I have been so cruel?" He wasn't blind to the way he had been. He just hadn't cared before this.

"You have been blinded Neji. I know the reason you are so bitter, and I know the truth of it. Go, talk to my father, he will tell you now." Neji started to bow, but she shook her head, smiled, and pointed to where Hiashi was sitting. Neji made his way toward his uncle. When he arrived and asked about the truth of his father, Hizashi's death, Neji was presented with a scroll. He sat down in a seat and read his father's account of what happened. He looked up from it and got a third shock for that day. Hiashi Hyuga, head of the family, was on his knees, his forehead pressed to the floor.

"Forgive me, Neji. I'm sorry for keeping this from you for so long."

"Please, sir, don't bow to me. I'm sorry for being so bitter toward you all for so long. From this day forth, I swear to you I will be a better family member to you all." Hiashi rose and smiled at Neji. Neji continued, "And I will be as good a friend as I can to Lady Hinata." Hiashi jumped and looked at him in shock, but Neji just smiled and told him, "She extended a hand to me in friendship; it is the least I can do to accept it." Hiashi smiled and nodded to Neji. Neji bowed a bit and the two parted, Neji returning to his team.

Hinata, meanwhile, was on cloud nine. As she passed by Naruto, she had mustered up all her confidence and spoken to him. He had answered willingly and the two were now talking easily as they ignored the battle between Lee and Gaara. Lee had knocked away Gaara's gourd with one of his Leaf Hurricanes. After that, Naruto and Hinata had ignored it, talking easily to one another.

Naruto smiled at Hinata and told her, "Thank you, by the way."

She jumped and blushed. "F-For what, N-Naruto?"

He grinned at her, "For calling out to me when I was fighting Kiba. I was about to withdraw, but then you called out to me. It was knowing you cared that gave me the courage to keep fighting and to win against him."

She smiled at him. "I wanted you to win, Naruto. I have watched you for so long, and I've always admired you for your courage." She was surprised it had gotten so easy for her to talk to him, yet it had. Her stutter was as good as gone. She was about to continue when she noticed that Naruto's eyes were glazed over.

Naruto was in his mindscape, in front of Kyuubi's cell. "What the hell do you want, you damn fox?" he yelled.

"**Just wanted to tell you, brat, this girl is the one you should take. She's the one you're meant to be with. She's the one you'll bond to and the one who will make your life complete. Now get out of here and make sure she doesn't get away,"** the fox said, grinning his vulpine grin.

Naruto shook his head as he came back to the real world. He smiled at Hinata, "Sorry about that. Please, continue."

"I was just going to say, thank you for showing me what you did. How did you get that chakra point closed, anyway?" She was just curious about that.

"I closed it myself. I'm not sure how I did it, but I did. I've done that from time to time, so I've had to learn how to re-open them. That's why I did it when you were watching, so you'd see how."

She smiled, "I only won because of you, Naruto. Thank you."

He grinned, thinking of what the fox had said, and said quietly, "Well, if you really want to pay me back, how about a date?"

She jumped, blushed red as a tomato, and stuttered, "A-a-a-a-a-a-a d-d-d-d-date?" He nodded. "I thought you l-l-l-l-liked S-S-S-S-S-Sakura."

He sighed. He had liked Sakura. "I did. But today, you showed me that you're the one who's been there for me. And I'd like to get to know you better. What do you say?"

She gasped. He was serious. She blushed even redder, then gasped out, "YES!" just before fainting. She came to a few minutes later, then blushed again when she found herself in Naruto's arms. He smiled at her, then helped her to her feet. She grinned at him, still feeling shy, but very very happy.

"I better get back to my team. When do you want to come get me for our date?" She was stunned by the fact that she didn't stutter while saying that.

"How about tomorrow, say six?" She grinned and nodded, then went back to her team. Naruto turned and saw Sakura giving him an evil eye. "What?" She pointed at Lee's fight. Lee was kicking Gaara all over in the air, then suddenly he kicked him down, brought him back up, punched him hard and sent him flying into the ground. Without his sand, Gaara didn't stand a chance. He was out.

Hayate called the match. Lee had won. Everyone was shocked, but nonetheless happy for Lee. As it ended, Naruto looked back at Sakura, who was still glaring at him. "What?"

Sakura, then Ino, then a few others came over and started telling Naruto that Hinata had been watching him since they started at the academy. He couldn't believe this but they insisted it was true. "But...that's four years!" he gasped out.

They nodded, and Sakura told him, "Exactly, Hinata has been waiting and hoping for this for four YEARS! So you need to make an effort to make it special for her."

Ino interrupted. "Come by the shop tomorrow, I'll have a bouquet for you." He smiled in thanks. He hadn't thought of that. He did, however, know where he was going to take her. He just had to let her know to eat beforehand; they weren't going to have time for that. He grinned, thinking ahead. Hinata, across the arena, smiled, thinking of tomorrow night. Neji smiled at Hinata, sincerely, happy to have her as a friend. Hiashi smiled at Hinata, proud of his daughter. And Naruto thought of what a difference a single call could make.


	2. First Date

Author Note: Okay, just to make something clear. This story is a bit of an AU. Some of the events that happened before the beginning of the anime are different in this story. They will be explained when they are relevant, but for now, just know that if someone acts differently than you think they would, that's why. Hiashi is a great example of this. The way he acts is due to the pre-anime differences. Like I said, the story behind it will come out later. In the meantime, enjoy.

Chapter 2

Naruto arrived at the Hyuga compound, holding a bouquet of lilies. Ino had explained that they symbolized devotion and that they were Hinata's favorite flowers. That last bit in and of itself was enough of a reason for Naruto to agree to her choice. He had paid for them, suspecting Ino was giving him a discount, but he didn't mind that. It had taken Naruto a bit of doing to convince Hinata to let him pick her up at home. She was afraid her father wouldn't approve, but he had an idea.

The Night Before

"B-B-But if you come to my home...Father might..." Hinata hesitated, not wanting to say what she was really afraid of.

"I know your father might see. That's exactly why I want to go there." She looked up at Naruto in surprise and confusion, but he continued, "I intend to ask his permission to date you. I want to show him that I'm worthy of you and that I have nothing to hide. And that's the best way I can think of to do it." They had been discussing this for about twenty minutes now, and Hinata kept trying to tell him she'd meet him somewhere else, but he was insistent.

"Well, if you're sure it's a good idea, Naruto."

He grinned and nodded. "I'm sure, Hinata. I don't want to hide this. I'm proud of you, as your father should be, and he should want you to be happy, so if he sees that I respect you and that I will treat you well, I doubt he'll object."

Hinata blushed deeply, then finally smiled and nodded as well. "Yes, Naruto, you're right. I don't want to have to hide it either. And you..." Her voice trailed off; Naruto looked at her, waiting, then she finally said, quieter, "...just having you pay attention to me...makes me very happy, Naruto." He smiled.

At The Hyuga Compound

Naruto smiled, thinking back on that. He felt very optimistic about tonight. He walked up to the door and knocked. It opened a moment later, and there stood Neji. Naruto saw the suspicious look in Neji's eyes, and he almost fled, but he stood his ground.

"Good evening, Neji." Neji almost jumped when Naruto addressed him with respect. Naruto even BOWED to him. Neji had a look that would rival Hinata's blush (he wasn't blushing, but he was highly shocked to the point he almost fainted). Naruto grinned and asked, "What, are you as much a fainter as Hinata?"

Neji tried to glower, but couldn't quite do it since he was still so surprised; instead, he opened the door further and gestured for Naruto to enter. Once he was inside, Neji closed the door, then asked, "What can I do for you, Naruto?"

"I was hoping to speak to Lord Hiashi, actually." While he was saying this, Naruto had set his bouquet down on a stand near the front door. Neji gave it an odd look, but Naruto didn't say anything about it.

Neji bowed, rather awkwardly, then said, "He is available; follow me please." With that, Neji walked down a nearby hallway. Naruto followed close behind. He heard Hinata's giggle as he passed one of the doors and knew she was there. He smiled. Then Neji stopped in front of a door, turned and looked Naruto up and down. Suddenly he realized something and had to ask. "Where's your old jumpsuit, Naruto?"

"Oh, right, that...I bought this last night." He was dressed in a three-piece suit, all of it jet black (this had to do with his plans for the night). He had actually gone alone the night before and bought it. It wasn't tailored to him, but it looked as if it were. "You'll see why I'm wearing it soon, Neji, don't worry." Neji let that go, and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" A voice came from the room behind the door.

"Lord Hiashi, you have a visitor," Neji said in his "servant" role.

"All right, show them in." Naruto was surprised Neji hadn't mentioned who he was, but Neji just opened the door and entered before Naruto.

"May I present Naruto Uzumaki, sir." Neji gave a small gesture for Naruto to enter, and he did. Naruto bowed low to Hiashi; Neji then bowed and took his leave. Hiashi visibly jumped in surprise, not only at the name, but at Naruto's behavior.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise, Naruto." Hiashi's face showed no emotion, as usual. Inside, he was rather shaken by this development and insanely curious. "What can I do for you, young man?"

Naruto straightened and stood straight, looking at Hiashi. "I have come to you tonight to ask you a favor, Lord Hiashi." Hiashi couldn't quite contain a jump at this. Not only because the young man was being so polite, but he was asking a favor of him AND calling him Lord, all of which he knew this boy in particular almost NEVER did.

"And what favor could I do for you, Naruto?" He was even more curious now, since this was obviously something the boy wanted badly, if he was going to all this effort.

"I have come to ask your permission to date your daughter, sir." Naruto bowed again, deeper than before.

Hiashi didn't realize what Naruto meant. His immediate thought was that Naruto meant Hanabi, which of course, Hiashi would refuse. He rose from his seat and almost yelled, "She is several years your junior! Why in the world would you date her?"

Naruto looked at him in confusion, and replied, "She's the same age as me, sir. What do you mean?"

Hiashi almost yelled again, then stopped. Maybe he didn't mean Hanabi. "Which daughter are you referring to, Naruto?"

Naruto looked almost as confused as Hiashi felt by now, but answered, "Hinata, of course."

Hiashi sat back down. Then he remembered something. Hinata had mentioned to him in passing that she had often hoped Naruto would notice her. Hiashi smiled. It seemed Naruto had finally done so. He couldn't help smiling at his daughter's fortune. She had earned the respect of himself, Neji, and her crush in the same day. He sat back and grinned, then decided to have some fun with the young boy. (To clarify, he had decided just then to allow Naruto to date Hinata.)

"I'm afraid I have to refuse." Naruto looked at him in shock, but Hiashi continued, hiding his smile carefully, "Unless, of course, you would be willing to show me you are worthy of my daughter."

Naruto looked slightly afraid, but nodded, asking, "What do I have to do, sir?"

Hiashi smiled, "It is customary in the Hyuga clan to only allow people who have taken blood oaths to date our heirs or heiresses." He was making this up off the cuff, but he rather liked the idea. "You would have to swear to never leave her, hurt her, or in any way cause her any mental or physical pain or anguish. And of course, if you broke this oath, your life would be forfeit immediately." He fully expected Naruto to tell him he was crazy, so the result he got shocked him.

Naruto immediately bit his thumb and inscribed in blood a symbol on his chest, which he had quickly bared, over his heart. He held up his hand and said, "I, Naruto Uzumaki, hereby swear to never leave Hinata Hyuga, to never hurt her, to never cause her any pain or anguish, and to always be there for her. If I break this vow, my life will end immediately." The blood on his chest glowed, then sank into his skin. Hiashi's jaw dropped. Naruto just grinned and asked, "Will that suffice, sir?" He then replaced his shirt and jacket, waiting for Hiashi to answer.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, I didn't mean for you to actually do that. I never intended to refuse you. However, you have shown me that you truly desire Hinata's happiness, and that makes you more than worthy of her. However, you do realize what you have just vowed essentially amounts to a wedding vow." Naruto nodded. "Are you sure you want to do that, when you have not even gone on a date with her yet?" He nodded again.

"I'm sure, sir. Hinata is precious to me, and I will protect her with my life." Hiashi nodded.

"Then I suppose I should go and get my daughter, shouldn't I?"

Naruto smiled, then bowed again. "That would be very kind of you, Lord Hiashi."

"Wait for us at the front door, please," Hiashi said, then arose. "I will bring her to you in a few moments, once she's ready."

"Thank you sir." Naruto bowed, then exited the audience chamber and went back to the front door, where he retrieved his bouquet and stood to wait for Hinata. Neji was still there, and looked at him curiously.

"What is that bouquet for, Naruto?" Neji had had enough and couldn't help asking.

"It's for Hinata." Neji looked surprised and got that fainting look back as Naruto continued, "It's for our date tonight."

"So that's why you wanted to speak to my uncle." Naruto nodded. "And I assume you got permission, seeing as you're still here, alive, breathing, and conscious." Naruto nodded again.

With Hinata

She had heard Naruto talking to Neji and had giggled and blushed, excited about tonight, but also afraid her father would say no. Then she heard her father's door open and close again ten minutes later, then again a minute after. Then she heard a knock on her own door and her father's voice rang out. "Hinata, may I come in?"

"Of course, Father." Her door opened and her father came in. She looked up at him and saw the stern look on his face. She hadn't heard the front door, but from the look on his face, she guessed he had told Naruto no. He came over and sat down on the seat by her bed. She hesitated, then asked, "What can I do for you, Father?"

"I just had a rather interesting visit with Naruto Uzumaki," he told her.

"Yes?" She was afraid of this. "And what was it about, Father?"

"He came to ask my permission to date you, as I suspect you already knew." She blushed, then nodded. "Of course, I refused." She looked away from him to hide the tears in her eyes. Hiashi smiled affectionately at his daughter, then continued, "I refused at first." She looked up at him, hope on her face.

"What do you mean, Father?"

"I mean I refused at first. Then, well, he changed my mind." He smiled at her. Suddenly her face brightened.

"Thank you, Father!" She cried out happily, then ran over and hugged him hard. He hugged her back softly, then sat her back down on her bed and said, "You'd better get ready, don't you think?" She nodded.

Then she had a thought, "How did he change your mind Father?"

"Ask him," he said, then left her room. He looked back before he closed the door. "I'll be right here to take you to him once you're ready." She blushed at that thought, but smiled happily as he closed the door. She had already chosen her outfit for the night, so all she had to do was get into it. She had showered not long ago, so it didn't take her long to come out of her room. Her father smiled at her as she came out. "You look beautiful, daughter." She smiled at him. He held out an arm to her, which she took and he escorted her out to where her date was waiting.

With Naruto

Naruto and Neji were talking about the training that was ahead of them, when they both heard steps coming toward them. Neji was the first to look and see Hiashi and Hinata together. His jaw dropped when he saw the long dress she was wearing. It went down to below her knees, and was solid black with a plaited skirt. Naruto saw her a moment later and smiled. He rose and bowed to both of them.

"You look beautiful, Hinata." He smiled at her as she blushed from his compliment.

"You look very handsome, Naruto," she said softly, smiling back. Then he held out the bouquet of while lilies he had gotten from Ino. She took them, smiling. "My favorite. How did you know?"

"I didn't. Ino told me." She smiled at his honesty and at the choice. Not only were lilies her favorite flower, they symbolized devotion, so of course she was happy at the choice Ino had made, and that Naruto had agreed. Then Hiashi held out his arm, with her other hand, and Naruto held out his hand; she took it, smiling at the formality. "Shall we go?" he asked her. She smiled up at Naruto and nodded quietly. She handed the bouquet to Neji, asking him if he'd put them in a vase for her. He nodded and walked off to get one.

"Have a good time tonight, you two," Hiashi said, smiling at them. "Have her back before midnight, Naruto."

Naruto bowed to him, and said, "Yes, sir."

Then they were outside. Hinata was still surprised by this turn of events. She looked up at Naruto, who smiled at her. She asked him, "How did you change Father's mind?" Naruto looked surprised.

"I'll tell you when we get to where we're going, all right?" She nodded. "And we'd better get going, or we're not going to have time to do all we have on the schedule for tonight."

She grinned, pulling herself closer to him, both her arms wrapped around the one of his that she'd been holding onto since her father had passed her to him. He was surprised, but pleased, and smiled at her. "I'm really glad I asked you to come out with me tonight, Hinata." She blushed and smiled.

"So where are we going, Naruto?"

"You ate already, right?" She nodded. "Well, first, I thought I'd take you out for dessert." With that, he headed toward a nearby bakery. She smiled, but hesitated.

"Are you sure you can afford this place, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded, then told her, "This place is owned by a friend of Teuchi's, from over at Ichiraku. He said to drop his name here, and the guy would take care of me."

So they entered. Hinata smiled as Naruto went to the counter and gave his name and Teuchi's. The owner came out and smiled. "You must be the young man Teuchi told me about. I've got your order ready, right here." So saying, he pulled a large covered tray out from under the counter. The aroma was enough to make Hinata's mouth water. Naruto handed the man some money, but he gently handed it back, saying, "Don't worry, this is on Teuchi." Naruto looked surprised, but the man said, "Teuchi told me if you came in here with a young lady, he'd cover your expenses." Naruto didn't want to accept this, but saw he had no choice. The man added, "Teuchi said to have you stop by and introduce your young lady, that's all he requires in pay for it." Naruto nodded.

They headed out of the door and Hinata commented, "That was nice of Teuchi."

Naruto nodded, then asked, "Would you mind stopping by there first? It's the least we can do since he's paying for this."

Hinata smiled, then told him, "I'll go anywhere, Naruto. So long as I'm with you, I'm happy." Naruto smiled and led her toward Ichiraku's.

On the way there, Naruto had a thought and started giggling. It got worse and worse, till he had to stop and calm down so that he could breathe. Hinata looked at him curiously, and he told her, "I just happened to think, this will be the first time I've ever gone to Ichiraku's without actually eating anything. But just having you with me more than makes up for it."

She smiled at him. That was high praise indeed, coming from him. Then she took his hand directly in hers and they continued on their way to Ichiraku's, both of them smiling peacefully.

When they arrived at the ramen stand, Naruto lifted the half-curtains out of the way and stepped inside, Hinata with him. He called out, "Hey old man! There's someone here I'd like you to meet." Teuchi looked over at them.

"Naruto! Hey! And who's this young lady you've got with you?"

"I'm Hinata Hyuga," said young lady answered, then blushed.

Teuchi grinned, "On your first date, huh, Naruto?" Naruto nodded proudly and Hinata blushed even redder. Teuchi smiled at her, "You look very lovely, young lady." She almost fainted, but fought it off.

"Thank you, sir." She said, curtsying to him. Just then, Ayame came out as well.

"And who do we have here?" she asked, smiling at Hinata.

"I'm Hinata Hyuga," Hinata said for the second time, curtsying to Ayame as well.

"It's nice to meet you, Hinata." Then she turned to Naruto and decided to needle him. "On your first date, huh?" He nodded proudly. "You treat her well, Naruto. A lovely young lady like this deserves it." He nodded again.

"I'd never do anything else, Ayame." They smiled at one another and Ayame winked at Hinata, who of course, blushed again.

"I went to that bakery you told me about, and he said you'd be covering the bill as long as I came by and introduced you to my date," Naruto jumped in. Teuchi nodded. "Thanks, old man. This really means a lot to me." Teuchi and Ayame smiled at their favorite customer.

"Either of you want anything? I'd be honored to serve at your first date," Teuchi said, smiling.

"No thanks, old man. We've already eaten dinner. And we're on a kinda tight schedule, so we need to get going," Naruto told him, looking somewhat chagrined.

Teuchi smiled. He wasn't hurt. "Well hey, you have to bring her by here sometime." Naruto grinned and nodded as Teuchi added, "It'll be a pleasure to get to know your young lady as well."

"Thanks, old man. Well, we better get going." With that, Naruto bowed to the two of them, and Hinata curtsied again as they left the shop.

"_Those two make a cute couple,"_ Teuchi and Ayame thought at the same time. They smiled, truly happy for Naruto.

Naruto turned to Hinata and asked her, "Ready?" She nodded and he said, "Come on then."

Ten Minutes Later

Naruto and Hinata arrived atop the Fourth Hokage's head, atop the mountainside images. Naruto had his hands over Hinata's eyes, to surprise her. She smiled, leaving her Byakugan off so as not to ruin it. As they arrived, he removed his hands and Hinata gasped. There was a table set up, with a checkered cloth covering it and a single candle lighting the area. She looked at her crush and he grinned at her, setting down the tray on the table. Then he came over and led her to one of the chairs and pulled it out for her. She smiled and sat down. He went around the table and sat across from her, then removed the lid from the tray. The aroma was making both their mouths water. Suddenly, Hinata realized what it was.

"Cinnamon rolls! How did you know, Naruto?" She couldn't believe this. First lilies, her favorite flower. Now her favorite food, too! Was he reading her mind or something?

He grinned. "I asked Neji. He told me they're your favorite, so of course that's what I got. And I had the baker make them extra sweet, just for you." She couldn't believe this. Extra sweet was just how she liked them!

Naruto reached over and cut the rolls. There were six of them in the tray, but they weren't small. He handed her one and took one for himself. Then he reached over and took her free hand gently in his, even though this meant he was eating left-handed. She smiled at his touch, then took her first bite and almost fainted from the taste. It was just that good. She loved it. With Naruto, this setting, all of it combined, it just seemed like a dream, a dream that was too good to be true, and yet here they were. She watched him take his first bite, somewhat slower than she had been, and as he chewed, she watched his face brighten.

"Wow, these are really good! I've never had them before!" Naruto exclaimed, smiling.

Hearing that, Hinata realized what was going on. Naruto had set all this up, bought her flowers, brought her to his special place, and bought her favorite food, even though he'd never even had them before. Wow. He was really going all out for her. She blushed at the thought, and tears of joy sprang to her eyes.

"Something wrong, Hinata?" he asked her.

"I was just thinking about everything you've done for me tonight. My favorite flowers, my favorite food, bringing me up here to your special place, that new outfit. You really are doing a lot to make this night memorable for me. And you even asked my father's permission to date me." She got up, walked over to him, and before she could lose her nerve, bent down to him and kissed him softly. "Thank you, Naruto."

He smiled, blushing slightly in surprise. "I wanted this to be the best night of your life, Hinata. So I found out about you, your favorite food, your favorite flowers, and I wanted to look good for you, so I dressed up, too. And as for your father, that was easy. I just wanted tonight to be special for you."

She smiled, sitting back down, then remembered what her father had said about Naruto changing his mind. "So, how did you change Father's mind, Naruto? You said you'd tell me when we got here, so tell me." As she was talking, Naruto had cut and handed her a second roll, seeing that she'd finished her first. He had only eaten half of his first.

"Well, your father told me there was a custom in your clan for when someone is dating the heir or heiress. He said it involved a blood oath to never leave them, hurt them, cause them any mental or physical pain or anguish, and to always be there for them. And that if the oath was broken, being a blood oath, the person's life would be forfeit." She looked surprised, realizing this was her father's way of toying with Naruto, but then he continued, "I bit my thumb, marked my heart, and took the oath on the spot." Now she looked shocked. "When I did that, he said I had shown that I truly desire your happiness and that doing so made me more than worthy of you."

"Naruto, you know there is no such tradition, right?" He nodded at her question.

"Your father told me that after I had done it. I don't think he expected me to do it, but I don't care. I was happy to do that for you." She smiled, blushing deep red. Then he continued, "Your father told me after I did it, that the vow I had just taken was essentially a wedding vow, and asked me if I was okay with that. I told him it was fine." She looked surprised. He added, "I meant that, too. I'm more than happy to vow to make you happy. As I told him, I'll protect you with my life, Hinata." She blushed, smiling.

"Are you sure about that, Naruto? I mean, we're only twelve, and you hardly even know me." She was almost afraid to say that, but it was true, and she thought it better to get it out now rather than waiting.

"I'm sure, Hinata. I know I don't know you yet, but that will change. I'll take as many hours, days, weeks, or even years as it takes, to get to know you. And I do realize you've always been there for me, so I know you're worth the time." He smiled at her, making her blush at this.

"Naruto, thank you."

"Think nothing of it, Hinata." Then he had a thought. "Actually, you want to make it up to me?" She looked slightly confused, then nodded. "All right, then I have an idea." He leaned over and whispered something in her ear. She blushed, but liked the idea, so she nodded. It would take them months to pull off his idea, but they smiled at one another and started making plans right away.

A short time later, they sat together and watched the sun set. After it had completely disappeared, they finished the roll they each had, and Naruto put the lid back on the tray, which still had three rolls in it, and handed it to Hinata. "You can have the ones that are left, Hinata. You like them more than I do." She smiled and blushed. Naruto had to ask, "Why are you always blushing around me, Hinata?"

"Well, it's just that I've always wanted you to acknowledge me, and when you talk to me, I feel so shy, so I usually end up feeling embarrassed and blushing. Why, does it bother you?"

He shook his head as they were walking away; he looked back and released the shadow clones he had; the table, chairs, candle, and cloth all vanished. (He had been using a shadow clone/transformation combination.) He laughed to himself, thinking how easy that cleanup was, then he escorted Hinata back home. When they arrived, he knocked on the door. While they waited, he kissed Hinata's lips gently, so that when Lord Hiashi opened the door, she was blushing like mad. He bowed to her father, and said, "I have returned your daughter to you, as per our agreement, sir." He smiled and held a hand out to Hinata, who took it gently, then turned back to Naruto. "Good night, Hinata. I'll see you soon." Naruto bowed.

"Good night, Naruto. I look forward to seeing you again soon." She curtsied to him.

Naruto stood, then said, "By the way, Hinata, how about we meet at the training ground tomorrow? I have something to show you."

"What time?" She asked him.

"Oh, say, noon? That way we can train on our own in the morning, and have the afternoon to train together?"

She looked at her father, who nodded. "Yes, Naruto. I'll see you at noon tomorrow."

They shared a smile, Naruto bowed to her and her father, then the door closed gently between them, and Naruto went home. He slept well that night, smiling as he dreamed.

With Hinata

"How was your date, Hinata?" Hiashi asked after Naruto was gone.

"It was great, Father. I think this was the best night of my life," she said, smiling at her father. Then Neji came up, having heard her. "Thank you Father, and you too, Neji."

Neji looked confused, so she explained what had happened, telling them both everything. Her two family members smiled at her, then she curtsied to both, saying she was tired and should get to bed. Suddenly, she remembered the rolls and handed them to her father. She explained they were the leftovers, and that she wanted to save them for breakfast the next day. He nodded and told her he'd take them to the kitchen for her. With that, she curtsied once more and practically skipped to her room.

As she lay there, drifting to sleep, her mind went over all that had happened that day. She had never felt so happy. She had had her first date, her first kiss, and both with Naruto. She fell asleep, smiling happily. Neither she nor Naruto realized it, but both of them fell into sleep at the exact same moment.


	3. New Jutsu

Author Note: The AU events I mentioned in my last author's note will change Naruto's behavior DRASTICALLY. This will come out soon, so when he seems to be acting weird, (for him) don't get pissed. There IS a reason for this. Also, the story behind Hiashi acting so...open will come out soon. Don't panic. Also, the Hiashi story is also why Hinata is so confident in this (compared to how she is this early in the anime). Naruto's...subdued nature is due to a totally different event. That WILL come out soon too; not quite as soon as Hiashi's story, but it will. I promise. Also, this chapter reveals a twist. Naruto's training is drastically different from canon. How and why this is will be revealed later. Don't hate me.

Chapter 3

Naruto was waiting for Hinata at the training ground. He was early. This was rare for him, but not unheard of. This time, though, he was over two hours early. He wanted time to practice what he was going to show Hinata. He hoped she'd like it. It was something he'd been working on for a long time now. But now, suddenly, he was nervous. After all, he had never shown it to anyone before. Then again, this wasn't a battle. He was just doing something for a friend. Or...was she more? No, he chided himself, this was not the time to think of that. He now only had a little while, half an hour or so, to practice before she got there. Where had the time gone? He had only tried a few times to do his little trick for Hinata. It had worked, but it wasn't perfect. He wanted to have it just right for her. Oh well, he'd gotten pretty lucky with her so far, and she didn't seem to mind when he slipped, so this time would be no exception...right? Still, he was worried. After all, she was the first one to really acknowledge him, and he sure as hell didn't want to lose that. Not now, not ever. He concentrated harder than ever, trying for the third time to do his jutsu. The one he had designed for her. He almost had it. Just one more try and it should be perfect. He wouldn't have it any other way. For her.

With Hinata

Hinata was working hard, training with her father. He was hard, but kind. He smiled at her as she tagged his shoulder and shut down his right arm. She grinned back, proud of herself. They bowed to one another as her father fixed his arm. She checked the time. She had about another hour before she had to leave to meet Naruto. She was so glad her father had accepted the young man. Then she remembered how harsh Hiashi had always seemed before. Suddenly, she had to know what had happened. He had changed when her mother died. She bowed to her father again, then spoke.

"Father, would you mind if we took a break a while? I'd like to talk to you about something."

Hiashi was slightly taken aback by this. Hinata almost never requested things of him like that, yet when she did, he could rarely tell her no. He nodded and they walked to the steps at the edge of the arena, sat down, and picked up the tea that was waiting for them there. Each of them made a mental note to thank Hanabi later. After drinking a short time to calm and relax themselves, Hiashi turned to Hinata. He was intrigued by her earlier statement. "So, Hinata, what was it you wanted to ask me?" He guessed at that. She hadn't said it was a question, but he knew her.

She turned to him, but then looked down. What she was about to say to him wasn't exactly flattering, and she was somewhat afraid to bring it up. Then she looked up and saw her father smiling softly and she felt her confidence rise, as it always did when he smiled like that. She smiled back, then said softly, so no one but he would hear, "It's about when Mother died." He looked surprised, but gestured for her to continue. She did. "Before Mother died, you were always so cold, so distant. Then after she died, you started getting warm and caring, and you and I got closer really quickly after that. I was wondering...what happened?"

Hiashi looked startled, and Hinata was about to withdraw the question, but he held his hand up. She fell quiet. Hiashi smiled softly to let her know she hadn't done anything wrong. Then he said, softly, "I think it's time you found out what happened, Hinata. But first, how long do you have before you meet your date?"

"I have about an hour before I should leave, Father."

He smiled; that was more than enough time to tell her, so long as she wasn't asking a ton of questions or interrupting all the time, which he doubted would happen anyway. "I think that should be sufficient." He sat back and closed his eyes, letting the memories come to him. He smiled as the memories of his wife came to his mind. "It was just after Hanabi was born," Hiashi started. Hinata waited, clinging on his every word.

_Hiashi heard his wife was finally awake, but was not well. He went into her room immediately to see her. She looked up at him weakly, and he took her hand. He truly loved her. He had for a long time now._

"_I'm not going to make it," she spoke softly, smiling. She was at peace, he realized._

"_You're going to leave me?" He asked her, hoping she'd say no, but she nodded, and he knew she was really going to die. He could see her life force with his Byakugan, and it was dim and getting weaker by the moment. He knew she'd be gone within the week. Then, he realized that this day was the last time he would speak to her. He gathered up his nerve, something he hadn't had to do for some years, and asked her, "What would you have me do, my love?"_

_She smiled again, then took his hand in hers weakly, before answering, "You are always cold to our daughter. For me, my love, change the way you treat her. Be kind, train her, make her strong, but allow her to remain kind. Accept that in her. She is like me, and like me, she deserves your love. Give that to her, and to Hanabi as well. Love them, for me, as I will not be there for them. Be there for them in my place."_

_Hiashi stiffened. He wasn't very good at showing emotion with anyone but his wife, and here she was, asking him to open up and be caring, gentle, loving, and kind to their daughters. But this was her last request, and he saw in her eyes that she wouldn't back down. She was so strong, even in this moment of final weakness. That's why he loved her so. Along with her kindness, she was very strong. Her gentleness did not make her weaker, either. Tt actually seemed to make her stronger. He knelt by her and told her, "I will do what you have asked. I will change, take your kindness to myself and show it to Hinata and Hanabi." She smiled and closed her eyes. He knew it was time for him to go, so he did. It was, as he'd thought, the last time he would ever see his wife._

"So, Hinata, you see, I am doing this because your mother requested it. I have always loved you, but I never knew how to tell you so. After your mother requested that, I knew I had to do it, so ever since then, I have thought of what she would do, and have done it myself. I'm just sorry I didn't show you my love from the start."

Hinata smiled, happy that her mother had been thinking of her and her sister even in her final moments. Of course, she forgave her father instantly for having trouble showing how he felt before. She ran around the table to him and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, and both were happy that they were so open, so close to one another now. Each one smiled, neither knowing that the other was. Hiashi still had his eyes closed so as not to weep at the memories of his wife, and Hinata had her head on his shoulder, relaxed and safe in her father's arms. Eventually, Hinata pulled back and smiled at her father, who smiled back. On impulse, she did something she hadn't done since she was a tiny baby. She kissed him. Hiashi returned it, but was surprised. Pleasantly so, but still, he hadn't expected that. He smiled wider at her, then whispered, "I love you, Hinata. And I'm very proud of you."

Hinata smiled and hugged him again. "I love you, too, Father." She hugged him tightly as he held her and rubbed her back. They both felt the same way. Happy, open, safe together. All too soon, Hinata saw what time it was and pulled away again. "I should go get ready. I'm meeting Naruto soon."

"Hinata." Hiashi said softly, and Hinata stopped and looked at him. "You want to marry that boy, don't you?" Hinata blushed deeply, but nodded. She did desire Naruto. Always had. Hiashi looked at her and asked, "If I arranged for it, would you be happy?"

Hinata jumped, looking at her father. It slowly sank in what he meant. He did have the power to arrange a marriage between her and Naruto, as her father and as clan head. She blushed, then whispered, "I'll need some time to think about it." He nodded.

"I understand, Hinata. Just think it through. It's not like you're even of age yet. But understand that if you desire to marry him, having it arranged would be the best way to make sure it happens." She nodded, then bowed.

"I should go, Father. I don't want to keep him waiting. I'll think on this and give you an answer as soon as I can." Hiashi nodded.

"Have a good time, Hinata. I love you." Neither of them knew it, but that was going to be a routine with them from now on. They had gotten closer, more open now.

Hinata smiled. "I love you, too, Father." She bowed again, then left, smiling peacefully. Hiashi smiled, thinking of how much like her mother she looked. He realized, once again, that she and Hanabi were all that was left of his wife, and so he must treasure them and keep them safe and happy. He smiled at the thought. He had found his precious people again, and he knew that he would always protect them, with his life if necessary.

With Naruto

Naruto smiled. He had finally gotten his jutsu right. He was ready for when Hinata got there, and she was scheduled to be there in about ten minutes. He smiled. That gave him just enough time to have plenty of chakra to do the jutsu again when she got there. He sat down at the base of a nearby tree and leaned his head back, relaxing. He had only been there for a few minutes when he heard her soft steps approaching. He kept his eyes closed, smiling, waiting for her to approach him on her own terms. He seemed to be asleep, but he wasn't. He forced the smile from his face so she'd think he was asleep. He wanted to see what she'd do.

With Hinata

She came into the clearing, looking around for the boy she admired. She almost concluded he wasn't there, and was going to go sit down to wait when she spotted him. He seemed to be asleep, leaning against a tree. She licked her lips at the sight of him, then scolded herself for her thoughts. She shouldn't be licking her lips at the sight of him! Well, not yet anyway. Maybe someday. But not yet. She walked over and crouched down in front of him, observing how he looked in sleep. She suddenly realized he wasn't asleep, but he wanted her to think he was. She decided to play along. Then she wondered how she should "wake" him.

She got on her knees by him, put her hands on his shoulders, and was leaning forward to kiss him. She knew he was awake, but she wanted to surprise him anyway. She was leaning in and she fully meant to kiss him to "wake" him. But just when she was about to make contact, he brought his arms around her and pull her to him, kissing her tenderly. She kissed back willingly, happily. They pulled back from one another, smiling at one another lovingly.

"Hey there," Naruto said. "I was waiting for you."

"I see that. I thought you were asleep at first, but then I saw you shifting and I knew you were awake. I just wanted to surprise you," she told him, smiling. He smiled back, then she remembered why they had met there. "You said you wanted to show me something?"

He smiled and nodded. "I made a jutsu," he told her. He didn't know how he had thought up this jutsu, but he wanted her to be the first to see it. He wouldn't use it if he had to battle her, so it didn't matter if she saw it before the finals of the exams. At first, he could only make it into a sphere, but that wasn't what he was going to show her now. (Just to clarify, the jutsu he's developed is the Rasengan, but he doesn't know that yet.) "I've been practicing this for a while, and I wanted to show it to you. And don't worry, if we have to battle in the finals, I won't use this on you." She smiled at that, realizing this must be one strong technique for him to say that, but she was also happy he wanted her to see it.

He held out his hand and gathered his chakra. She activated her Byakugan at first so she could see what he was doing. He was bringing his chakra together and causing it to spin really fast. That's all she needed her bloodline trait for, so she turned it off. As she watched, he formed the spinning ball of chakra into a heart. He smiled, holding it in front of him. "Wow, Naruto, that's beautiful." He nodded.

"It's beautiful, but powerful." He turned away and shoved the ball of chakra into a stone, which was ground into dust around it. Then he pulled it out and it wasn't even scathed. "Hinata, you know how to hold chakra in your hands, right?" She nodded, wondering what he had in mind. "Come here."

She walked over to him and he held the ball out to her. She held up her hand, knowing he wanted her to, but not yet sure why. He gently slid his hand under hers so the heart of chakra was in her hand, then pulled his hand away, leaving it in her hand. She looked at him, confused.

"With this heart of chakra, I, Naruto, give you my heart. I vow to love you always, Hinata. And I vow to never hurt you or leave you. I am yours, from now till forever." He smiled, waiting for her reaction.

She slowly allowed the chakra heart to dispel. As it dispelled, she felt the chakra spiraling into her. She smiled at the power and at his words. Once the jutsu was totally dispelled, she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, then asked her, "Hinata, will you be my girlfriend?" She nodded happily, then thought back to her conversation with her father.

"I will, Naruto." They smiled at one another, then she gestured for him to sit down. He did and she sat with him. She pulled out some food she'd brought with her, consisting of rice, dumplings, and some vegetable dish. He looked surprised. "I made us lunch," she explained, and they sat down to eat.

Ten minutes later

"Wow, Hinata, this is really good." He smiled at her as they finished their lunch. "Thank you."

"I wanted to, Naruto. It made me happy to cook for you." She blushed prettily.

"You made all this?" She nodded. "Wow. I'm impressed, Hinata, really! You're going to make someone one heck of a wife someday." He grinned, not even thinking of himself being that "someone". This, naturally, made Hinata think even more of what her father had said. She decided to tell him.

"What if...what if it was you?" she asked. He looked surprised, then curious, so she continued, telling him about what her father had said. He looked nervous at the idea of an arranged marriage, then smiled. He'd be happy to be with her. If that's what it took, and if that would make her happy, he'd do it. Without a second thought, he'd do it.

"Do you want that, Hinata?" he asked her. "Would it make you happy, if your father arranged for us to be married?"

She looked surprised. No one had ever asked her her opinion for anything like this before. She thought a moment, then told him, "Yes, Naruto, I want to marry you. But I don't want you to feel forced, or like you have to for me."

"I don't. I want to marry you, too. And if it will make you happy, I'll certainly say yes if your father approaches me."

She nodded, then told him, "I'll tell father tonight, then. Just, please, don't tell him I told you." He nodded.

"I won't say anything to him, Hinata. And of course I'll tell him yes. But first, one thing." He held out his hand and formed a small chakra ball, very small, like the heart from before, but tiny and round, then he hollowed it out, so that it was like a ring. He got down on his knees and Hinata's breath caught as she realized what he was doing. "Hinata Hyuga, will you marry me?" he asked her, holding the chakra ring up to her.

She had never been happier. She slid her finger into the ring and said, "Yes, Naruto Uzumaki, I will marry you." As she said this, the ring dispelled itself into her, becoming part of her. There was a small mark around her finger where the ring had been.

"I'll get you a real ring when I can." She nodded at his assertion. She really was happier than she'd ever been. She was engaged to him, but no one could know yet. Soon, she thought to herself. Soon, everyone would know. She was slightly surprised that he was so willing to move so fast, but she didn't care. She was happy. But she had to ask.

"Why are you so willing to commit to me, so wholly, so fast?" she asked him. She saw a flicker pass his eyes.

"Are you sure about asking that, Hinata?" She nodded. "I'm willing to do this because you're the first person to acknowledge me and accept me, and I'm not going to lose that, no matter what." They smiled at one another, then he continued, "You've made me feel worthwhile, Hinata, and I promise I'll do everything I can to make that become love. And once it is, I'll always love you, and I'll never leave you." She smiled and blushed at the praise.

"I should be getting home. Father will be worried. Could you walk me home, Naruto?"

"Of course, Hinata." He helped her pack up the dishes from lunch and handed her her pack, then he took her hand gently and led her home, happy with how close they were to one another.

Ten minutes later, at the Hyuga compound

Naruto approached the door and knocked loudly. He kissed Hinata softly as they waited. She blushed, and he laughed at how easily he had done this to her twice now. He decided then and there that whenever he was dropping her off, he would do this. It was so cute watching her blush. Then the door opened, and Hiashi was there. He grinned at his daughter's blush, guessing it was for the same reason as last time. He held out his hand.

Naruto handed Hinata's hand to her father, who took it gently, and bowed to the man, saying, "I have again returned your daughter to you safely, sir."

Hiashi smiled and said, "Indeed you have, young man."

Naruto smiled and said, "See you tomorrow, Hinata?" She blushed, then nodded. "I'll make us lunch this time." She smiled. "And I'll see you soon as well, Lord Hiashi?"

"I suspect so, Naruto." He turned to his daughter. "Hinata, I need to speak to Naruto in private a moment." Hinata nodded and left them, escaping into the building. Hiashi addressed Naruto again. "Do me one favor, Naruto."

"What can I do for you, sir?"

"From now on, when you bring Hinata home, always make sure to hand her over to me personally. I want to see to her safety. I trust you, but once she's here, make sure to give her to me and only me, okay?"

Naruto bowed. "I will, sir. And I thank you for trusting me with your daughter. I will always honor her and you." He bowed again.

"Thank you, Naruto." Lord Hiashi bowed slightly. "I'll see you tomorrow then, after your date."

Naruto nodded, then bowed again. "I take my leave then, sir." Hiashi nodded, and Naruto left, headed for home.

With Hinata

Hinata had gone to her bedroom and was sitting on her bed. She wondered what her father had wanted with Naruto, but she knew it wasn't about the arranged marriage he had offered her, so she didn't think much about it. After a few minutes, she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in." She called. She was only slightly surprised when her father entered and sat in a seat by her. "What can I do for you, Father?"

"Have you thought about what I asked you before you left this morning, Hinata?" She nodded shyly. "And...?"

"Father, I would like you to ask Naruto if he'll consent to an arranged marriage with me." He was surprised by this, but he didn't show it. "But...please, don't force him into it. I don't want him to feel like he has to." He calmed at that. He knew his daughter well, and he knew she wouldn't want him to marry her out of obligation, pity, or because of anything he had done.

"I will see what I can do, Hinata. Just, please, don't get your hopes up too much. As you have requested, I won't force him. I hope for your sake, for your happiness, that he says yes. But Hinata, make me one promise." She looked at him, waiting. "If he says yes, you must promise to do everything in your power to make sure he spends the rest of his life in happiness."

Hinata smiled. "I will make no such promise to you, Father. But to him, I will make that promise the day he and I are married." Hiashi smiled and nodded.

"Well spoken, daughter. It is him, after all, that you must make the promise to, not me. My happiness or lack thereof will not change based on what you do with him. But I'm glad you said this, and I hope for both your sake and his, that he says yes."

The next day, after Naruto and Hinata's date, at the Hyuga compound

Naruto had knocked on the door and it was opened immediately by Hiashi. He was slightly disappointed he hadn't gotten the chance to make her blush that day, but he decided to let it pass. Hiashi smiled at the young couple, then addressed Naruto, "Could you accompany me to my office, young man? I have something to speak to you about." Naruto nodded, handed over Hinata, then followed him to the clan head's office. He stood before Hiashi's desk, waiting to see what this was about, though he thought he knew already.

Hiashi sat down and started to rearrange a few papers on his desk till he found the one he was looking for: a marriage contract. He grinned at Naruto, thinking the wait would have made the young man nervous, but was surprised at the calm aura the young man exuded. He had to regain his composure somewhat before he could address the calm young man.

"Naruto, I have asked you to come here to make a proposition to you." Naruto nodded, waiting, letting Hiashi address this how he saw fit. "I propose to arrange for you and Hinata to be married when she comes of age. Do you accept?" He looked at Naruto, hope and fear warring on his face.

Naruto decided to get Hiashi back for his prank when he had been asking permission to date Hinata. He grinned his prankster grin behind his hands, then said, "And what would be in it for me, Lord Hiashi?"

"Aside from having Hinata as your partner, you would be the de facto head of the Hyuga when I pass, along with her, of course. She would be the true head, but if you know her as I do, she would share her power with you. Also, you would inherit my fortune as her partner, so you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams. Beyond that, you'll have a very high status within the village as part of our clan, and you'll get the respect you've always wanted. I'd see to that."

Naruto almost laughed. For some, this would be enough to convince them, even if they didn't care for Hinata at all. But Naruto contained himself and responded, "I'm not interested in any of that, Lord Hiashi." Hiashi looked at him, shocked. "No amount of money, respect, status, nor any other worldly consideration could convince me to marry Hinata."

Hiashi's face fell. He had been afraid of this. He had one final card to play and he hoped it would work. He rose from his desk and walked around, then got down on his hands and knees before Naruto and pleaded, "Naruto, it would make me the happiest, proudest father to have you marry Hinata. And I know for a fact there's nothing in the world she wants more than to be with you, so if you marry her, you'll make her happier than you can imagine as well. Please, Naruto, tell me what I have to do to convince you to consent to this."

Naruto couldn't take it any more. He busted out laughing. Soon he was doubling over and then fell to the floor, clutching his sides laughing uproariously. Hiashi slowly rose to his feet, confused as to this reaction. Naruto eventually calmed down, then rose and stood before Hiashi, still chuckling. "Naruto, please tell me what is so funny."

"I never intended to refuse you," Naruto told him, turning his own words back on him. "I just wanted to have some fun. And it worked. That was priceless." Hiashi smiled as he recognized his words to the blond when he had asked to date Hinata to begin with. Naruto smiled, wiping a tear from his eye from laughing. "Of course I'll consent to marrying Hinata."

Hiashi smiled, then said, "Good revenge Naruto. But tell me, are you doing this because you want to?" Naruto nodded emphatically. "Then I am happy to have you as a future son-in-law." He extended a hand, which Naruto shook.

"I'll see you tomorrow then, Lord Hiashi?"

Hiashi nodded, then said, "But please, Naruto, call me Father."

Naruto smiled. He'd never had a father before, but he was looking forward to the experience. He smiled, then hugged Hiashi, who smiled and hugged the young man in return. "See you tomorrow, then, Father." Naruto said, bowed slightly, and left. Hiashi smiled as he watched him go, then stood and made his way to Hinata's room. He just had to tell Hinata the good news. He knocked on her door.

"Come in." He heard her voice from within, and he entered. He wasn't quite done with his fun yet, so he decided to play with Hinata a little, too. He grinned and sat in the seat by her bed, hiding his smile carefully.

"Well, Hinata, I approached Naruto about our proposition." She seemed confident. But he continued, "He refused." Hiashi looked sad. And technically he wasn't lying. Naruto had refused at first.

Hinata's face fell. Why would Naruto refuse? He had proposed to her! Was he just toying with her? No! She couldn't believe that. Perhaps...then she realized her father wasn't done talking, so she listened.

"I offered him money, respect, power, anything he could ever dream of. And still he said no."

She was stunned, but she wasn't going to interrupt. She waited.

"Then I told him that I would be proud to have him as a son-in-law, and that I knew nothing would make you happier than to be with him. I told him that," Hiashi looked up at his daughter at this and grinned, "and he accepted!" Hinata squealed in delight and threw her arms around her father's neck. He hugged her back. "I'm so happy for you, Hinata, and I love you."

"I love you, too, Father, and thank you so much for doing this. I will be in your debt forever." Hinata was so happy. She had everything she'd ever dreamed of. Her father and her cousin respected her, Naruto loved her and was going to marry her, and her father had even gone to Naruto and "arranged" the marriage, so her clan and the village couldn't do anything to stop it. She had every dream she'd ever had, and they were all true. She laid back on her bed and fell asleep almost immediately, the happiest smile of her life on her face. Hiashi smiled at her, kissed her forehead, then left her room. His daughter's life was finally falling into place and she was happy, so he was happy as well. He was smiling, too, the first true smile he'd smiled in several years.

So it was that Naruto and Hinata began a truly happy future together.


	4. True Dream

Author's Note: I plan on this fic being quite long. So the story behind Naruto's drastic change won't come out for another 3 or 4 chapters, at least. Like I said before, there is a reason for it, so don't hate me for it, but it's not ready to come out just yet. I hope you enjoyed the Hiashi bit last chapter. As I said, that's why Hinata and Hiashi are how they are. I like Hiashi in the anime, so I think this is how he would be if he could. And if he was, Hinata would be how I've written her. Please, be patient with Naruto's character. He is this way for a reason. And there are a few incidents I have in mind that will explain it. And no, they aren't spoilers for stuff he finds out later (for instance, who his father is). Like I said, just be patient with him. There's a reason for his attitude, and you'll see it soon. And just a side note, I will not "bleep" out swearing; if you see -! or some such thing, it's the person being shocked or what have you, and not being able to say anything. Enjoy.

Chapter 4

Upon awakening, Hinata, Naruto, and Hiashi had three very different reactions to yesterday's events, and three very different outlooks on the events that were likely to occur today.

Hinata awoke slowly, feeling like she had just awoken from a very long dream. She immediately thought of everything that had happened since she had called to Naruto, and she knew it had to be a dream. She fully believed none of it was real. She sighed and began to ridicule herself. She got up, showered, and dressed with no real enthusiasm. She didn't bother to check her calendar, assuming the second exam was going to begin that day. She shook her head at herself, thinking how foolish Naruto would think she was if he knew about her dream. She walked to the dining area and nearly lost her balance when she saw Neji there, sitting at the table. She lifted her finger to her mouth, an old nervous habit, and was about to turn and leave when he spoke.

"Why do you flee from me, cousin?" he asked, genuinely confused. He had thought after their last talk that they would be able to eat together and speak this day. He was, for the first time in his life, legitimately interested in getting to know his younger cousin. "Or am I not worthy to eat with you?" He said this last bit lightly, teasing his cousin.

Hinata turned and looked at him, slowly realizing that at least that part of her "dream" had been real. She sat across from Neji, smiling softly, and told him, "I'm sorry, Neji, I forgot about what happened. I'm so used to you being cold and hateful, it's just hard to break the habit. Forgive me?"

"Of course, cousin. After all, you've forgiven me for much worse than that." He grinned and held a hand out to her. She took it softly and they shook hands. It felt right for some reason. Then she sat, and soon they were talking easily while they waited for breakfast.

Meanwhile, Hiashi was waking up and showering with a similar lack of enthusiasm to Hinata's, though his was for a totally different reason. He couldn't help smiling for his daughter's happiness, but he was dreading telling the family council that he had arranged for his daughter, the heiress of the clan, to marry the Jinchuriki. He knew they'd just LOVE that. Then he laughed at himself and reminded himself that if Hinata was happy, it'd be worth it. He dressed, somewhat lighter at heart, and made his way to the dining hall as well. When he arrived, he found Hinata and Neji talking and laughing easily. He came in and sat at the head of the table.

"Good morning, Lord Hiashi," Neji greeted him.

"Good morning, Father," Hinata said, smiling.

Hiashi smiled at the two cousins. "Good morning, children. I'm glad to see you two being so friendly to one another now." The two cousins smiled at him and one another happily. They were glad the tension between them was gone as well.

After a few moments, Hinata finally spoke up, determined to confirm or refute her "dream"; she said to her father, deciding to act as if the dream was real, "Father, have you told anyone about your discussion with Naruto last night?"

Hiashi laughed, realizing what Hinata was doing, then told her, "Not yet, and I'm sure the council will just LOVE this one. Though, you are certainly welcome to talk about it if you wish."

"So...it was real?" she asked. Hiashi nodded. Hinata blushed, realizing what this meant. Then she remembered Naruto's "ring", and looked at her finger. Sure enough, the mark it had left was there. She giggled and squealed a little at how happy she was.

Neji couldn't take it. He was curious, and Hinata's squeal was too much. He had to ask. "What happened, Hinata?" Hinata blushed and smiled at Neji, then looked at her father, who nodded.

Hinata held up her hand, so both her cousin and her father could see the mark on her finger. Hiashi realized what it meant, and grinned. Neji raised his eyebrow, waiting for her to start talking. "You see the mark here on my finger?" Neji nodded. "I'm engaged." Neji jumped visibly at this.

"E-e-engaged?" he choked out. He couldn't believe he had just stuttered like that, but he was shocked. Hinata nodded. "To whom?"

"Naruto." She smiled even wider, the reality setting in on her, that her "dream" really was real.

Neji was even more shocked by this and looked at Hiashi. "You knew?" Hiashi nodded. "And you approve?"

Hiashi grinned. "I arranged it, Neji."

Neji thought things couldn't get any weirder, but that did it. "What in the world do you mean, uncle? You arranged for Naruto and Hinata to be married?" Hiashi nodded, watching Neji closely. "Why?"

Hiashi burst out laughing again. "Neji, you know I love my daughter. And you know I want her to be happy, yes?" Neji nodded, thinking to himself that only a total moron would be unaware of how Hiashi felt for his daughter. "And you can see that she is happier now than she has ever been, can you not?" Neji nodded again, then smiled, seeing his uncle's point.

Neji bowed to Hinata slightly. "You have my congratulations, cousin." Hinata smiled and blushed, then Neji continued, "I hope I may find the same happiness someday."

Hinata blushed slightly, then remembered hearing Tenten mention to Lee that she liked Neji. She wasn't privy to the conversation, but perhaps she could use the information to her (and Tenten's) benefit. She grinned and told Neji, "You should ask Tenten out." Neji jumped, wondering how Hinata had known of his crush on his teammate, but Hinata continued, "I think she has a crush on you."

Neji blushed, but asked, "You think so?"

Hinata laughed, "I don't think so, I know so, cousin." Neji stiffened slightly, but Hinata said, "I heard her talking to Lee one day, and she was saying she wished you'd ask her out." Hinata shrugged, then said, "I figure you may find what you seek there."

Neji thought a moment, then nodded to Hinata. "Thank you, cousin." He took her hand gently and they smiled at one another, happy with the bond between them. Then he turned to Hiashi. "Uncle, may I ask a favor of you and Hinata?" They each looked at him curiously and nodded. Neji continued, "You two are the closest I have to a father and a sister. I was wondering...if you would mind if I were to refer to you as such?" He looked down, sure one or the other would be offended and tell him no.

Hiashi grinned. "I would be honored, Neji. You are like a son to me, so to have you call me Father would be a great pleasure." Neji looked at him, surprised, then smiled. Then he turned slowly to Hinata.

Hinata smiled softly and nodded. "You do us both a great honor, brother."

Neji smiled at the change in term. "Father, sister, I thank you both." They each smiled and nodded to him. It was then that several Branch Family members came and served the three of them breakfast. The three ate in silence, then Neji rose and said, "Please excuse me. I have training to get to." The other two nodded and he fled quickly, letting go with the happy tears he had been holding in since they had allowed him into their circle.

Hinata looked to her father, then said, "I'm sorry Father. I didn't know how to get you to confirm what had happened. I woke up this morning and was so sure it was just a dream. That's why I said what I did. To get you to either tell me that it was real or confirm my fear that it was a dream."

Hiashi nodded. "I figured it was something like that, daughter. And I'm not offended. I'm just happy for you. And don't worry about the council. They won't dare oppose me." She smiled, knowing how forceful her father could be if he so chose.

Then Hinata thought of something. "Father, I should tell you something. Last night, when you told me Naruto had refused, I nearly panicked. The thing is, I told him before your talk that you were going to do that. And he proposed to me." She indicated her finger again. "He gave me a chakra ring of sorts for now. So when you said he refused, I was afraid he had been toying with me. But when you said he accepted...Father, I've never been so happy in my life."

Hiashi smiled. "Daughter, I would do anything for your happiness, so I'm glad to see you so happy. And I did offer Naruto power, money, all of the things I said I did, and he did turn them all away. Then I told him it would make you and me happy and that's all he wanted. That's when he accepted. He truly desires your happiness, so I am happy for you both."

Hinata looked shocked. "What do you mean Father? Why would you offer him money?"

Hiashi laughed, "Not like a dowry, daughter. I told him he would have the Hyuga fortune because of being married to you. He turned me down flat. I told him he'd have power, respect, influence, and he told me he wasn't interested in any of that. Then I told him it would make you happy and he said he would be happy to marry you."

Hinata smiled, realizing what that meant. Naruto didn't want her for her money, or her family, or their position. He just wanted her. She'd have to talk to him about that. She rose and bowed to her father, then went to him and hugged him. "I'm heading out for the day, Father. I love you."

He hugged her back and said, "I love you too, daughter. And have a good time with Naruto." She smiled at that.

"I'm sure I will Father. And thank you again." She kissed his cheek then ran off, skipping lightly. Hiashi smiled and touched his cheek where her lips had touched. Hinata didn't remember until she was already gone that she and Naruto hadn't planned a date for that day. She decided to surprise him. She just hoped he was sleeping in that day.

She skipped to his house, moving lighter and faster than she had in a long time. She got to his small apartment and picked the lock using her chakra, laughing at how easy it was. She went in and found him still asleep. She turned his alarm off, just in case, and looked around his one-room apartment. He had a small main room of sorts, where his table (if you could call it that), bed (futon really), and two chairs took up most of the room. The "kitchen" was along one wall, with a stove (two burners), small oven (Hinata would have been hard-pressed to fit inside it), a sink that could barely hold the three bowls the boy seemed to own, and his refrigerator, which was the only full-sized appliance in the apartment. In his bathroom were his washing machine and dryer, a single unit that had the dryer above and the washer below, a shower stall that she knew he'd barely have room to turn around in, a sink even smaller than the kitchen one, which shocked her, and his toilet, with about four square feet of empty floor space between them. The whole apartment felt very cramped, especially to Hinata, who was used to the Hyuga mansion. Hinata found the mess in the apartment was a bit much for how small the place was, but it wasn't much really. She picked up and did a little dusting and cleaned the windows in about twenty minutes. Then she checked what food he had and made him some breakfast. She was surprised he had food other than ramen, but she wasn't complaining. She threw his clothes in the washer (it filled, to her surprise) and turned it on. Everything was so quiet he hadn't even awoken yet.

Giggling to herself, she set his breakfast on the table, then walked over and kissed his forehead. He groaned slightly and wrinkled up his nose and forehead. She giggled again, then cupped his cheek in one of her hands and whispered, "Naruto, wake up."

Naruto sat up straight at the sound of her voice. He looked at her and gasped. "Hinata, what are you doing here?" This seemed the obvious question to him.

She giggled at his look of shock and handed him his breakfast. He gasped again and was fighting back tears as she said, "I made you breakfast." He took it from her and ate slowly, savoring the crisp bacon, the light fluffy eggs, and the warm toast. After he finished, she asked, "How was it?"

"Hinata, this was probably the best breakfast I've ever had. Thank you." She blushed at the compliment. Then he remembered where they were and when. "But you never answered me. What are you doing here?"

Hinata smiled. "I wanted to see you. And I decided to come over here and surprise you. I picked your lock with my chakra and came in, cleaned up, and made you breakfast."

Naruto looked around and saw that it was true. The place was clean, dusted, neat, and his clothes...where were they? "Where are my clothes?"

"In the washer." She got up at that point, checked the washer, which was done, and moved them to the dryer. She came back and sat down in front of him again. "In the dryer now."

He blushed as he realized she had been handling his clothing. But she didn't seem to mind. He turned to her, looked her in the eyes and said, "Hinata, this is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you so much. But...why are you doing all this?"

Hinata smiled and said, "I told you. I wanted to surprise you. And I wanted to see you. Besides, I wouldn't be a very good fiancée if I didn't see to it you got a good breakfast, now would I?" She put her hands on her hips at the last part and gave him a mock-stern glare.

Naruto blanched. Fiancée? So...he had just woken up so he hadn't really remembered the events of the previous day yet. Hearing that reminded him though, and he smiled. He said softly, "I truly thank you, Hinata. You've done more for me already than anyone else has ever bothered to do."

Hinata sighed, happy in his praise, then remembered her conversation with her father. "Naruto, Father was telling me about your discussion with him last night." He looked slightly worried at this, so she continued, "He told me you turned down money, power, influence, all that, and that you only agreed when he said it would make me happy."

Naruto sighed, relieved, then said, "Yes, Hinata, that's true. I don't want money or power, or any of that. I just want you to be happy."

She blushed prettily, but pushed on, "Why is that, Naruto? Why would you be so determined to make me happy? I mean, it's not like we've been together long or anything, and already your determination to make me happy is astounding."

Naruto blanched slightly, then said, "I can't tell you yet, Hinata. I will tell you, and soon, I promise, but not yet, okay?"

Hinata was slightly disappointed, but she thought a moment and nodded, "I don't want to push you, Naruto. I was just curious."

He came to her and took her hands in his, saying, "There is a reason, Hinata. And I promise you I'll tell you as soon as I can. Just...not yet. Trust me, okay?" She nodded again, and he lifted her to her feet.

She grinned and let him pull her to him. Then he took her right hand in his left, and put his right hand on her waist. She put her free hand on his shoulder, then asked him, "What are you doing, Naruto?"

He grinned and told her, "I've always wanted to try this." He led her into a slow dance. She followed, letting him set the beat. After a few steps, he spun her away and pulled her back, keeping the beat perfectly. She was impressed. They danced a little longer, then he spun her again, this time pulling her into an embrace when she came back. They stood there a while in one another's arms, just happy to be close to each other and to not be alone anymore.

After a few minutes, Hinata reluctantly pulled back. "I'm sorry, Naruto, but I've got to go. I have to meet my team in half an hour for our training for today." He nodded.

"Hinata?" She looked at him. "When you get done training for today, come back by, okay?" She gave him an odd look and he explained, "Your father told me that whenever you're with me, he wants me to make sure you get back to him and only him. You're with me now, and you're going there, so I need to see to it you get back to him after that." She smiled and nodded.

"I'll see you in a while then, Naruto." She left, smiling happily at his thoughtfulness.

Naruto, meanwhile, laid back on his bed and smiled, thinking. He couldn't believe this had happened. After all, just a few days ago, he had been ready to give in to all the hate in the village and to just slink away in shame. Now, days later, he had a girl who loved him, who was his fiancée, who had just cooked him breakfast and cleaned up his place just because she wanted to, and who was quite honestly the prettiest girl in the whole village. He laughed at himself as he thought of that. He had thought Sakura was the prettiest at one time, but now she paled in comparison to Hinata. Maybe it was true what they said, that the more you got to know someone, the more they look different to you. Maybe. He put his hands behind his head as he remembered what had happened with Sakura that had made him see her differently. Then he thought of how Hinata had yelled at him to not give up, and that he could do it.

He closed his eyes and replayed that day in his head, realizing again how much a difference a single call could make. He laughed quietly, thinking to himself that if she hadn't done that, he wouldn't have even noticed her. He smiled. He was so glad she had called out to him. He grinned, then thought to himself that he'd have to make sure he didn't let anything come between them and that he never did anything to hurt her. He laughed softly at himself when he realized the very thought of hurting her was like a dagger in his heart. He knew then and there that he'd never hurt her. He got up and got showered, got his clothes out of the dryer, and got dressed.

Ten Minutes Later, Naruto's Special Place

Naruto smiled as he arrived at the place. He'd found this place some years before, back when everyone in the village hated him. He only came here because it somehow felt like home. He had gotten in through a window after learning the tree-climbing technique. It hadn't been locked, and when he got in, he found a room full of scrolls. One of them had detailed the jutsu he had just recently showed Hinata. It was the only one in the entire collection with no name, so it was the first one he had learned. He had found a few wind-style scrolls as well, and had been able to pick those up pretty easily, much to his surprise. Some were just ways to blow things away, literally, others were slicing moves, and still others allowed him to "blow" at the ground and push himself up or redirect himself in the air using wind. These had all come naturally to him for some odd reason. Yet when he tried the fire, water, earth, and lightning techniques in the scrolls, they had been harder, and nowhere near as strong as the wind ones, so he had ignored most of those. He had learned one that allowed him to electrify his fingers to shock people or whatever, one to create a fireball, which wasn't large, but still, it was enough for him, one to make a shield out of water, and one to make the earth shoot up spikes, though those were almost so short as to be useless. Once he realized those elements didn't work as well for him, he'd passed on them and concentrated on wind moves. They cut, blew, and were good for both offense and defense anyway, so he didn't mind. Lately, he was working on trying to mix elements into his "chakra-spinning" move, which he hadn't named yet. He had found five scrolls detailing how to "manipulate" each element, and was using his spin move to try to do it.

Wind chakra, naturally, he found easy to mix into the move. The other four were harder. Lightning wasn't too hard, fire was harder, water somewhat easier than fire, but not as easy as lightning, but earth was dang near impossible. Earth chakra was just too damn stiff to get into those spinning patterns; he'd managed it once, which was interesting to see. It made the chakra turn gold, but he couldn't keep it up very long. He did all this on his own. Just like the shadow clone jutsu he'd learned from that sealing scroll when he was trying to become a Gennin, he'd done all this just working alone, practicing for hours on end, trying hard, and every so often having a breakthrough. He was proud of what he'd done, but it wasn't easy. He laughed as he thought about how he'd learned to make that spinning sphere. The scroll just said how to do it, not how to learn it. He'd had to improvise somewhat, using anything spherical he could find to make the shape, then he had to figure out how to make the chakra spin and how to make it strong enough. He used a balloon to make the sphere first. Then he used a rubber ball to get the spinning part down. He used his chakra to roll the ball around. It was kinda weird, but he managed. Then, to get the force, he figured out that if he got enough, he could break the ball. Sure enough, that worked. Now he could do it almost without thinking. And he could fire off about forty of them before he even noticed the drain. He didn't know how he had so much chakra, but he sure wasn't going to complain about it. He was sitting there thinking about all this, when he remembered Hinata's question from that morning.

He grimaced, thinking of how everyone else had reacted when they found out what he was. She was one of the very few now who didn't know. And everyone else...Sakura, Sasuke...Kakashi already knew, but the others...Kiba...they all rejected him when they found out. He didn't think Shino cared much one way or the other, but all the others, even Ino, had rejected him. He was afraid Hinata would too. But he knew he'd have to tell her sooner or later. Especially since she'd asked him why he was so willing to move so fast. As he was thinking about this, he didn't notice what he was doing, but he was changing the shape of the spheres he was holding in his hands (he held one in each hand while he thought; it helped him focus); the one in his left hand became the heart he had shown Hinata before while the one in his right hand became a flat disc, much like a shuriken when it's spinning. That one was also getting smaller and sharper, and he was unconsciously adding wind chakra to it. Suddenly, he came out of his daze and looked at it.

He thought a moment, then threw it; he was somewhat surprised that it actually flew and didn't just dissolve, but he got the real shock when it hit the wall and went right through it. He used his chakra to repair the hole (he had learned a couple hole-fixing jutsu; figured they'd be useful to heal wounds and the like), then looked out the window where the chakra shuriken had sliced up about a dozen trees with glancing blows before slamming into a rock. The shuriken stopped, but the rock had a large cut in it. He was stunned. He hadn't even been trying to do that.

About a Mile from Naruto's "Special" Place

A large man with spiky white hair was peeking into the women's bath when he heard a loud crack, followed by a few sounds like trees being cut, followed by what sounded like a stone shattering. He jumped at the first, then thought hard about the others. He headed off in that direction, curious. After all, it had come from a direction where he knew only one house was, and that house wasn't exactly being used anymore. In a few jumps, he was within sight of the house, just behind the rock he'd heard. Sure enough, the trees leading from the rock to the house were cut up and he watched as a hole in the wall of the house was repaired from within, obviously with chakra. Okay, what the hell was this? He headed over to the front door and used his key to get in.

With Naruto

Naruto heard a key in the front door turn and the door open. He panicked. He'd been sure this place was no longer used. He was about to run when he heard it.

"Someone in here?" A voice called out from downstairs before heading up to the room he was in. He couldn't get out fast enough, even if he'd wanted to. The door opened and a man stood there. Other than his white hair, he could have been in his twenties, but was more likely in his forties. Naruto was shocked to find this man, who he had never seen before, standing here in this house. The man gave him a look and asked, "Who are you?"

Naruto noticed the look. It wasn't the look everyone else gave him. It was a look of surprise and curiosity, not that cold stare everyone had when they looked at him. He hesitated. This man was old enough to know about his...guest. Should he tell him his real name or hide it? He decided to take a chance. "I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki."

"I thought so. You're the spitting image of your father."

Naruto jumped, stiffened, then slowly, stiffly, looked at the old man. "MY FATHER?" he exclaimed louder than he intended, his shock making him yell.

"Yes, your father, kid. You look just like him."

"You know who my father is?"

"Of course I know who he is, I was his sensei. And you're in his house."

"Wait...this is my father's house? But..."

"Wait, kid, you mean you don't know who your father is?" Naruto shook his head. "Then how are you here? In this room, in this house? How did you know to come here?"

"I didn't. I found this place by mistake a year or so ago. I was just exploring the village and happened to find it. I had just learned how to climb trees with chakra, so I walked up and found this window was unlocked, and I came in. I've been kinda hiding out here, learning jutsu and stuff since then. I didn't know it was my father's place."

"Wow. I'm impressed kid. So was it you that broke the wall and hit that rock out there?"

"Yeah. Is that why you're here?"

"Yeah, I heard the rock shatter. I decided to come see what was up over here. But wait. If you were in here, how the hell did you do that?"

"A jutsu I learned from one of these scrolls." Naruto gestured at the ones in the room as he said this. "It didn't have a name on it, so I don't know what it's called."

"Show me." Naruto looked a little surprised, but he held out his hand and formed the sphere in his hand. "HOLY -!" the old man shouted in shock.

Naruto looked at him, then suddenly realized something. "Okay, old man, you've told me everything but what I want to know. First off, just who the hell are you?"

"Oh, sorry kid. My name's Jiraiya. I'm the Toad Sage. Don't ask. Believe me, you don't want to know."

Naruto accepted that, then said, "Okay, fine, Jiraiya. You say you were my father's sensei. Who was my father?"

"The Yondaime Hokage, of course."

Naruto's jaw dropped so hard it popped. He shook his head, then muttered, "Wait a second, the Fourth was my father?" Jiraiya nodded. "Why the hell did no one ever tell me this?"

"To protect you. Your father had a lot of enemies, kid. Now, you said that jutsu didn't have a name?" Naruto shook his head and showed the old man the scroll he'd learned it from. "And you learned this all on your own?" Naruto nodded this time. "It's called the Rasengan. Your father developed it. But that didn't do what I saw was done to that rock out there. How did you do that?"

Naruto smiled. "Rasengan, huh? Then I guess you could call what did that the Rasenshuriken. Actually, I like that name. Here, I'll show you." He held out his hand, created a Rasengan, as he now knew it to be called, then flattened it to a disc and added his wind chakra to it.

Jiraiya watched this in rapt fascination. "And you did this all on your own?" Naruto nodded again, happy that someone was actually paying attention to him. Then Jiraiya remembered. "You're the Kyuubi container, aren't you?" Naruto looked scared, but nodded. "I guess you're a hero then." Naruto looked at him, shocked. "What? You saved the village from that beast by containing him within you. You're a hero as much as the Fourth. He sealed the beast, and you contained it. Neither one would have been possible without the other. So you're a hero. I'm sorry the rest of the idiots in this village don't see it that way."

Naruto smiled, then looked at Jiraiya and asked, "Would you consider taking me on as a student? Please?"

Jiraiya was surprised to be asked this, then thought a moment and nodded, "I'd be happy to, Naruto."

Naruto ran over and hugged the man, then pulled back and said, "Thank you, Jiraiya-sensei! This means a lot to me!"

Jiraiya laughed, "Jiraiya-sensei, huh? It's been a long time since Minato called me that, and no one has since. It's nice to hear it again." Naruto grinned and Jiraiya continued, "Okay, Naruto, I'll take you on as my apprentice. And you'll be my focus from now on. Let's go let Sarutobi know." Naruto looked confused at the name. "I mean the Third, knucklehead." Naruto grinned and nodded.

Half an Hour Later, Hokage's Office

The Third Hokage looked up when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he said quietly. The door opened, and Jiraiya and Naruto walked in. He grinned at Naruto, then looked at the man with him and his jaw dropped in shock when he recognized the Toad Sage. "Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya nodded, "Yes, it's me, Sarutobi-sensei."

"What are you doing here? Are you looking for Orochimaru?" Naruto looked at the Third when he mentioned that name, surprised. After all, he'd met that snake already.

"Nope, can't say that I am," Jiraiya answered. He was about to continue when Naruto interrupted.

"Orochimaru is here!" Jiraiya and the Third both looked at him in shock, and he explained, "My team ran into him during the second part of the exams, and he put some kind of mark on Sasuke...and a seal on me."

Jiraiya said, "Show me." Naruto did as he was told, peeling his shirts off and making his seal appear.

"You learned all those jutsu with THAT on you?" Naruto nodded. "Wow, kid, you're good."

Jiraiya put a hand out in front of him and chakra flared on his fingers. He yelled out "FIVE PRONGED SEAL RELEASE!" and plunged his hand into Naruto's stomach. Naruto gasped, but sighed in relief when he saw the seal disappear. Jiraiya then said, "Now, show the Hokage that jutsu you showed me. Sarutobi, you're not going to believe this."

Naruto decided to try something. He held his hand out and formed the Rasengan and tried to infuse it with earth chakra (the hardest) and found it shockingly easy. Soon there was a golden sphere swirling in his hand. Jiraiya looked shocked.

"You didn't tell me you could infuse it with elemental chakra, kid. Can you do that with other elements?"

Naruto grinned, released the sphere, then recreated it first with wind, then lightning, then fire, and finally, water chakra. "I tried earth first here, because that's been the hardest for me. Wind's the easiest."

Jiraiya looked ready to faint, then looked at the Third, who of course recognized the jutsu too. The Third finally found his voice and said, "Naruto, I'm sorry I haven't done more for you in the past. I knew the villagers were cruel to you, and I didn't do anything to stop it. But I really couldn't, the council wouldn't allow it." Naruto nodded at this, showing he understood. Jiraiya told the Third about telling Naruto about his father, about the Rasenshuriken as Naruto called it, finding his father's house, all of it. Naruto grinned when he talked about the Rasenshuriken, smiled quietly when he talked about him finding the house, and looked embarrassed when he talked about the scrolls and how Naruto had been learning up there. The Third told Naruto, "I want you to know, Naruto, that when you turn 18, your dream will come true. You always said you wanted to be Hokage. If I live that long, on that day, you will be named the Fifth Hokage." Naruto gasped and then smiled at that. "Just so we're clear, that does NOT leave this room, got it?" Both Naruto and Jiraiya nodded. Then he looked at Naruto, and added, "And that includes Hinata." Naruto looked down a bit, then nodded.

Ten Minutes Later

As they were leaving the Hokage's office, Jiraiya turned to Naruto. "So, who's Hinata?"

Naruto grinned at Jiraiya, "Oh, she's my fiancée, Jiraiya-sensei." Jiraiya looked surprised.

"Fiancée, huh? Aren't you a bit young for that?"

"Yeah, I guess so, but it's an arranged marriage. I'm more than happy to be with her, and I know she's happy to be with me, so no one's objecting to it. And her father arranged it, so that's all good too."

Jiraiya nodded, realizing this kid was mature enough for this, and then smiled. "So, when do I get to meet the young lady?" Naruto gasped, remembering that he'd told Hinata to come back to his place after her training.

"I gotta get home. She'll be on her way there soon."

"I'm coming with you. I want to meet the young lady." Naruto nodded and ran off to his apartment, Jiraiya keeping up easily.

After just a few minutes, they came into sight of Naruto's building. Just as they came into view of it, Naruto saw Hinata going in the front door. He gasped and ran around to the back and leaped to his balcony. Jiraiya followed as he opened the door there and they went in, just as there was a knock at his door. Naruto caught his breath quickly and went to open the door.

Hinata was standing there, waiting patiently, when he opened the door. He pulled her in and hugged her tightly. She hugged him back, then they pulled away from each other and kissed gently. When they separated, Hinata saw Jiraiya and blushed.

"Hinata, this is my new sensei, Jiraiya," Naruto told her.

"Hello, Jiraiya-sensei, it's a pleasure to meet you," Hinata said, bowing.

"You as well, young lady. I can see why Naruto here is so bowled over by you." He grinned teasingly as he said this, and Hinata blushed deeper.

"Sensei, don't tease her, she's really shy," Naruto said, defending his fiancée. Hinata smiled at this.

"Okay, sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you, young lady." Then Jiraiya smiled. "So, you two are engaged, huh?" She smiled and nodded emphatically.

Naruto grinned and told him, "I told you so. And believe me, it's not just her looks, I care about her for who she is too." Naruto put his arm around her waist as he said this. "You'll see, sensei. She's a really sweet girl."

Hinata, blushing at her love's praise, said, "Naruto, you told me to come by so you could take me home. We should get going before Father starts to worry."

Naruto grinned, and said to Jiraiya, "I'll be back in a little bit, okay, sensei?" The old man nodded, and Naruto left hand-in-hand with Hinata, smiling. They made small talk on the way there, Naruto telling her about his day, leaving out the Hokage's news, along with the bit about his father and him and the fox, and soon they were at the Hyuga compound.

Naruto knocked on the door, then kissed her deeply, pulling back so she was blushing when the door opened. Neji was there.

"Good evening, Neji. Could you let Lord Hiashi know that I'm here, please?" Neji nodded and went to get his uncle. A moment later, Hiashi was there. "Hello Father, I'm here returning your daughter to you, as per our arrangement." Hiashi smiled.

"I didn't know she was with you, Naruto." Naruto grinned, thinking of that morning. "But I thank you for returning her to me." He held out his hand, and Naruto handed Hinata's hand to him. He took it gently, and led Hinata into the house, then smiled at Naruto. "Have a good evening, Naruto." Naruto nodded and they parted. Naruto went home, while Hinata went to her room and Hiashi went to the meeting room where the council was waiting for him.

Naruto arrived back home fifteen minutes after leaving, and Jiraiya grinned at him, "Did you have a good time with your girl?" Naruto gave him a confused look, and Jiraiya groaned, "You mean to tell me you two are virgins?"

Naruto realized what the old man meant, and snapped, "OF COURSE WE ARE, YOU OLD PERVERT! WE'RE ONLY 12!" Jiraiya laughed. Naruto glared. "All right, Pervy Sage, knock it off."

Jiraiya glared at him, but couldn't deny it, so instead, he changed the subject, hoping the nickname wouldn't stick (fat chance!). "Naruto, you've been training alone a long time, I see." Naruto nodded. "I may not be the best teacher out there, but I'll try to help you with anything you want to learn. First, I need to see how good your chakra control is. What shapes can you make with the Rasengan?"

"Well, I've only tried a few. I made a ring out of it for Hinata, and the sphere of course, and the shuriken from earlier. That...and one more."

"Show me." Naruto grimaced, but formed the Rasengan heart he'd made for Hinata. Jiraiya was stunned by this. "And you can infuse it with all five elements of chakra. Wow, kid, you must be some kind of genius." Naruto grinned. "Let's see if we can't improve it even more." Jiraiya spent the next few hours teaching Naruto to make the Rasengan larger, smaller, stronger, weaker, different shapes (a tube, for instance), all kinds of variants. Naruto practiced for hours, then eventually he had to get to bed for the night. As Jiraiya was leaving, he asked, "How many Rasengans can you fire off in a day?"

Naruto shrugged, then told him, "I start to feel the drain after I've done about forty of them, if I don't release any of them and use them all." Jiraiya, knowing how much chakra the jutsu took, was stunned, but he couldn't show it. "If I absorb them back, I don't feel it till I've fired off about a hundred of them," Naruto finished. THAT didn't surprise Jiraiya much, since he himself could fire off about twenty of them without noticing much if he took them back in, but forty USED without feeling it? Sheesh, this kid had one hell of a reserve. Jiraiya was just glad the kid wasn't his enemy. He got up, shook hands with his new student, then left.

Naruto chuckled at Jiraiya's reaction, then went and got ready for bed. He fell into bed with a satisfied smile on his face. His dream was going to come true, he had someone who loved him, and now he had a sensei who thought he was a hero. What a day! He fell asleep happily, and was soon having a happy dream of his wedding day, and being Hokage.

With Hiashi

As Naruto was falling into bed and sleep, Hiashi was walking into the council chambers to confront the rest of his family leaders. He grinned, thinking of how they'd react to this one. He opened the door and saw the council arrayed around the table therein. He bowed to them slightly, and knelt at the head of the table. He laid his papers down in front of him and immediately sealed the room. They weren't leaving without his permission. And he wasn't giving it till he had what he wanted.

"What is the meaning of this, Lord Hiashi?" a Branch Family member asked.

"I've called you all here for one reason and one reason only," Hiashi stated. "I've arranged a marriage for Hinata."

"WHAT?" the whole council yelled as one.

Hiashi glared them back into order. "YOU WILL NOT OPPOSE ME IN THIS!" he shouted at them. "YOU WON'T DARE!" They waited for him to calm down. He did, then continued, "I have arranged for Hinata to marry Naruto Uzumaki."

This, of course, set off a ton of responses. "THE DEMON?" "WHAT?" "NO!" were a few. With the whole council yelling, Hiashi just glared at them all.

"I warn you, do NOT get in my way." His quiet anger was more frightening than his yelling. The council calmed down.

One member finally spoke for them all. "Why would you arrange for her to marry him?"

"Because she desires it. And because the young man truly desires my daughter's happiness."

"How can you say that? The boy is an orphan; he must be after our money, our influence."

Hiashi grinned. "I knew you'd say that." He handed them all a copy of the paperwork he had with him. "Read that." He waited while they did. It was a transcript of his conversation with Naruto about Hinata and his marriage. It was signed by himself, the typist, and two witnesses who had been in earshot of the conversation, saying it was accurate.

"This must be a mistake," the same member spoke.

"With four signatures?" Hiashi grinned. "And you know our typist doesn't make mistakes. I can have Naruto sign it as well, if you'd like." The member shook his head and fell silent. "I thought so. Now, this is done, and you will NOT do ANYTHING to get in their way, got me?" They all nodded, not daring his anger again. Even the Main Family members knew he wouldn't hesitate to cut them down if they did, so they all agreed. A couple didn't like it, but most were happy enough to deal with it. Hiashi released the seal on the room and said, "Get out of here. You all have things to do, I'm sure, and I have to go speak to my daughter."

Once they were all gone, he went to Hinata's room and knocked softly, in case she was asleep.

Hinata jumped slightly at the knock, but answered quickly, "Come in." Her father entered, smiling. She waited for him to sit near her, then queried, "Yes, Father?"

"I've just spoken to the council about your marriage, Hinata," he said, still smiling. "A couple of the members were dead-set against you marrying Naruto, but I...well, brought them around. Your marriage is in the clear. We'll announce it to the rest of the village tomorrow."

Hinata smiled and hugged her father. "I love you, Father. Thank you so much." He smiled and hugged her back. "Father, do me one favor?" He looked at her. "I want to tell someone first, so could you not announce it till after lunchtime tomorrow?" He smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Father."

"You're most welcome daughter. Now, I suggest you get some sleep. You've got a big day tomorrow. Oh, and tell Naruto to be out front of the Hokage's Mansion at one o'clock PM tomorrow, all right?"

"Yes, Father, we'll both be there. I'll make sure." He smiled at her, then left her room. He retreated to his own bedroom, did his own evening routine, and fell into bed, relieved and happy for his daughter. He fell asleep smiling gently.

Hinata was so happy, she couldn't sit still. She took a long hot shower, relaxing her muscles, then went through her normal night routine, and fell into bed herself. Soon enough, she was asleep, dreaming of Naruto. Tomorrow, she kept thinking. Tomorrow everyone would know about him and her. Then they'd all have to accept it. That's all there was to it.

Little did she know that Naruto still had a secret to tell her. Several secrets, actually. But that night, she was just happy that he was hers. Would she be able to stay that way after Naruto revealed himself to her? And would he do it in time? Only time would tell, but for now, Hinata was just glad she had called out to him that day, which wasn't even a week earlier, yet felt like a lifetime ago. She laughed softly, thinking of how a single call really had made all the difference, and how sometimes dreams do come true.


	5. Truth Revealed

Author Note: An apology; this chapter rambles a bit. I didn't mean for it to, and I think it still works, but it rambles on for a bit a couple of times. I hope you can look past that. Also, I'm deviating even further from canon in this chapter. And yes, there is a reason I haven't revealed Naruto's story yet. It will come soon, I promise. And by the way, there is something I'm planning to do in a few chapters. I'm leading up to it in this chapter, and next chapter will make it pretty obvious, but I'm not going to do it until chapter 8. IF I get a ton of reviews telling me not to, I won't, but otherwise I will. Like I said, it's not obvious in this chapter, but it will be next chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one, in spite of its faults.

Chapter 5

When Naruto awoke the next day, he had no idea that it would be any different from any other day. He awoke slowly when his alarm blared at him, turned it off, stretched, then got up and went to get his shower and get ready for the day. He had training with the Pervy Sage, he had to see Hinata, and he had to figure out when and how to tell her about his...guest, his father, his past...all of it. He had to tell her soon, but how? And when? He groaned. It was too much to think about just now. He showered slowly, letting the heated water wash away his tension. He sighed happily as his muscles relaxed and his mind cleared. He decided. He'd tell her today, this morning if he could find her. With that determined, he got out, dried himself off using a jutsu (practice, he told himself), then went to the kitchen to get breakfast.

With Hinata

Hinata awoke shortly after Naruto did, and her thoughts were similar to his, but along a different track. As she showered, letting her muscles relax, she thought of telling him about her father's announcement. She had to tell him this morning, so of course that meant she had to find him early. She toweled off, thinking it'd be better to save her chakra for later; after all, she had a hard day of training ahead of her, not to mention the stress of telling Naruto about her father's announcement and making sure he was there. She sighed, thinking about how hard this day was going to be, but she was determined. After all, this was the day when no one in the village would be able to deny her, or Naruto, what they wanted. She dressed and went to have breakfast with her father and Neji. She was smiling by the time she left the compound to find Naruto.

With Naruto

Naruto left his house slowly, trying to think how to find Hinata. He figured she might be looking for him, but he didn't want to rely on that. He stepped out of his house and thought a moment, then put both index and middle fingers together in a cross shape. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" he yelled out, and sent two hundred clones to search the village for her. Meanwhile, the original waited at home in case she came there. He didn't have to wait long. About ten minutes after he sent his clones out, she came up to him, smiling when she saw him sitting out front. He grinned and undid his jutsu, letting the memories sweep over him, laughing at a couple, grimacing at others.

"Hey, Hinata. What's up?" he greeted as she came up to him. She looked nervous.

"I needed to talk to you, Naruto. It's about my father."

"Wait, Hinata. I have to tell you something first. You know how I told you no one in the village had ever accepted me before you?" She nodded. "There's a reason for that. And I know the reason." She looked at him, waiting. "You know the story about what happened twelve years ago, right? The Kyuubi attacking the village and the Fourth Hokage defeating it?" She nodded, wondering what that had to do with anything, but of course she knew of that story. Who didn't? "Well...the story that goes around, about the Fourth killing the demon...well, it was...slightly exaggerated." She looked confused, but nodded encouragingly to let him know she understood and to go on. "He didn't kill it. It's a demon, and no human could ever kill it. He defeated it by sealing it in a newborn infant. After that, the Third Hokage made a law that stated that no one could speak of what really happened. He wanted to protect the one who contained it from the hate of the village...but he failed." His voice trailed off somewhat. She smiled lovingly and he sighed. "Hinata, the child he sealed the demon in...was...is me." She looked surprised.

Hinata thought for a minute, then came over and hugged him. She hugged him harder than she ever had before. He was surprised, but he hugged her back. Eventually, she spoke. "So you're the one." He looked at her, confused. "You saved us. Me, my father, Neji, all of us. You saved us." He smiled. First Jiraiya, now Hinata. He sighed. He finally had people who accepted him. A sensei...and a fiancée. He hugged Hinata tenderly and rubbed her back as she cuddled close to him, neither one caring who saw. After a few minutes, Hinata pulled back and looked at him. "I almost forgot, I have to tell you something."

Naruto smiled, then said, "Let's go up to my place. I want to give you something. Then we can talk about it, okay?" She nodded and he took her hand and led her up to his apartment. He opened the door and led her in gently. He sat down on his futon and she sat on one of the chairs, looking nervous. He smiled, forming a small Rasengan in one hand, like the one he used for her ring. He hollowed it out, making the ring again. "So, what's up, Hinata?"

She blushed, watching what he was doing. "It's about Father." He nodded. "He's going to announce our engagement to the village today. He got the family council to accept it last night. And he's going to announce it to everyone today." He smiled and nodded. While she talked, he was tinkering with his chakra in the ring in his hand. He had figured out he could make things wood-like by combining earth and water, so he was tinkering with other combinations. He was currently trying combining earth and air. That didn't do much. It just canceled itself out and the ring fell apart. He gestured for her to continue. "When Father told me last night, he asked me to make sure you were there. I told him I would, and he said to have you outside the Hokage's Mansion at one o'clock. So meet me here at quarter till noon, okay? We'll have lunch and then go over there together, all right?" While she said this, Naruto had created another ring, mixing earth and fire this time. This time, what he wanted to happen did. The earth chakra melted and turned metallic, then he concentrated hard, and the chakra ring became a real ring. Hinata's eyes widened as she saw this, even as she talked.

Naruto grinned, then came over to her and handed her the now-real ring, sliding it onto her finger. "I told you I'd get you a real ring when I could." She nodded. "And sure, I'll see you here a little before noon. And Hinata?" She looked at him, hoping against hope he was going to say what she thought he was going to. He did. "I love you. I was thinking about all you've done for me and how you've been here for me and all that. And I love you." She blushed prettily.

"I love you too, Naruto. I'm glad you were able to tell me before Father's announcement." She took his hands in hers and kissed them gently. He turned her up to face him and kissed her lips softly. She responded willingly and they stayed that way a few moments, then separated, smiling at one another. Then she got up and said, "I have to go. I have training this morning, and you have to meet with Jiraiya-sensei, don't you?" He nodded and she smiled at him. "I'll see you soon. I love you."

"I love you too. I'll see you at lunch." She turned and left, smiling to herself. She went to her training grounds and worked on her taijutsu until lunchtime. Naruto, meanwhile, headed off to his father's house. He was smiling, his real smile, the one he'd almost forgotten he had until Hinata.

Upon arriving in the room where the scrolls were, Naruto was pleased to find Jiraiya waiting for him. "I'm not used to having a sensei who actually arrives on time," he commented as he came in. "It's a major improvement." Jiraiya laughed.

"I told you I'd be here, Naruto. Now, what do you want to work on today?"

"Actually, first I want to show you something, then I have something I want to ask about and we'll go from there, fair?" Jiraiya nodded. Naruto formed a Rasengan. Then he added earth chakra to it, then mixed it with fire and formed a steel ball. He handed it to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya looked at the ball in surprise. He had never heard of anything like this. The kid had turned his chakra into a physical thing. Naruto told him about the ring, mentioning that it was a different metal (he didn't know it, but he had made her ring out of pure white gold), then asked his question. "Could it be possible to have more than two elements mixed together in the Rasengan? Could I maybe have all five in it?" Jiraiya thought about that.

"I guess it's possible, though I've never known anyone who could wield all five elements easily enough to do that."

"I want to try," Naruto said. "But if it gets dangerous, I need you to take it from me so I don't get hurt." Jiraiya nodded. Naruto added, "By the way, why would wind be the easiest one for me to use?"

Jiraiya was surprised by that. "I guess that you must have a natural affinity for wind. That would be your basic element, if you will." Naruto nodded, not quite getting it, but he got the idea. He formed a Rasengan again, pumping wind into it first. It turned green and glowed a little in his hand. He made the ball smaller so it would still fit in his hand once all five were in it. Then he added fire. Then earth. By then it was an odd shade of gray, with an orange tint. When he added water, he was afraid the fire would go out or something but it turned a shade of yellow instead, all four elements mixing together in the sphere, which was still small enough to easily fit in his hand. Then he added the final element, lightning, and the sphere glowed white. He grinned.

"I'm impressed, kid. Don't let that go just yet." Naruto nodded. "Try to form it into your Rasenshuriken." Naruto nodded and concentrated a minute, and sure enough it formed into the flat disc. Jiraiya pointed at the wall. "Throw it as hard as you can. There's nothing that way for a mile, then there's the spring, which is empty right now." Naruto did as he was told. The two heard wood being cut, stones shattering, and then a splash as it slammed into the hot springs. Then nothing, as the disc was stopped by that. Naruto grinned at Jiraiya.

"How was that, Pervy Sage?" Jiraiya laughed at the affectionate nickname and ruffled the kid's hair.

"I'm impressed, kid! You've already surpassed me. Your father too! But I think there are some things I can still teach you."

Naruto grinned, eager to learn. He and Jiraiya spent the next few hours working on seals, wind jutsu, fire/wind combination jutsu, earth jutsu, and even a water jutsu. Naruto soaked it up like a sponge. He had never been given the time of day before, so to have someone teaching just him like this was a dream come true for him, and he was determined not to waste the opportunity. He worked hard, learning everything Jiraiya could throw at him, and just when he thought he was getting a jutsu down, the old man would add something to it to keep him pushing himself and trying new things. He soon had several wind jutsu down, along with a pretty good defensive earth jutsu, a fire/wind combo attack, and a water attack. Jiraiya was amazed the kid had learned so much so fast. Naruto was just happy to have an attentive sensei. All too soon, he realized he had to head home.

Of course, Naruto had told Jiraiya about Hiashi's announcement. But what about Hinata? She did say she wanted to tell someone. Who?

With Hinata

Hinata walked up to the door and knocked on it firmly. Shortly, the door opened and Hinata smiled at the sight of her friend. "Can I talk to you?" Hinata's friend nodded. They went up to her room and sat down, Hinata in a seat, her friend on her bed. "My father is going to make an announcement today after lunch time, but I wanted to tell you first."

"What is it?" The pink-haired girl looked confused.

"It's about your teammate," Hinata said, knowing the girl would think of Sasuke.

"What would your father have to announce about Sasuke?" Sakura asked, making Hinata giggle.

"Not Sasuke, Sakura. I mean your other teammate, Naruto." Sakura grimaced at the sound of her teammate's name. "I wanted to tell you myself because you're my best friend, Sakura."

Sakura smiled a little. "What is it, then, Hinata?"

"Well...Naruto and I are going to get married when we're both of age."

Sakura's jaw dropped. She remembered how persistently the blond knucklehead had asked her out up until the mission to the Land of Waves, and how suddenly it had stopped after that. He had gotten so withdrawn after that. Not that Sakura really cared. No one did. But then she remembered how Naruto had been about to give in to Kiba until Hinata called out to him. Maybe someone did care. And now this. Apparently Hinata had never gotten over her crush. But then, she must not know what Naruto was.

"Do you know what he is, Hinata?"

"If you mean about the fox, yes, I know." Sakura was shocked again. So Hinata knew and still wanted to be with the boy. So be it.

"Well, Hinata, I guess if you're happy, I'm happy for you. And I know you've always loved that knucklehead, so I'm glad you finally got him." Hinata smiled and hugged Sakura. The two of them had gotten close after Sakura had come back from the Wave mission, and now they were best friends. Sakura was truly happy for her friend. After a few more minutes of small talk, Hinata left Sakura's to head back to Naruto's to meet him for lunch before the announcement. She was smiling as she walked. She had been nervous telling Sakura, but she was glad her friend had accepted it.

With Naruto

Naruto waited in his apartment, lunch ready. for when Hinata would come. He didn't have to wait long. He had just finished setting everything up for them when he heard a knock at the door. He opened it and smiled. "Hey, Hinata. Come in. Lunch is just ready." Hinata smiled and came in.

"Wow, Naruto, did you do all this?" He nodded. It wasn't a large meal, but it had taken a while to set it all up. He had the table draped in a long tablecloth (really a transformed shadow clone) and a single candle lighting the table, small sandwiches on a large tray, mixed juices to drink (apple and orange mixed, he had mixed them himself), a finger-tray of fresh vegetables. Easy, cool, and simple, yet it was a feast to her. She was happy, and he was happy because of it. They sat together and ate, Hinata fiddling with the ring he gave her from time to time. Naruto saw this and smiled.

"You excited, Hinata?" She nodded. "Me too. I'm just so happy being with you, and now the village will have to accept that we're together." She nodded again, smiling. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Naruto." Her voice sent pleasant chills up his spine as she smiled at him. After they ate, they decided to walk to the Hokage's Mansion together to get there early.

Upon arriving at the Hokage's Mansion, Naruto and Hinata made their way to the outdoor patio where the announcement would be made. They sat and looked up at the Hokage images on the mountainside. Naruto remembered he had yet to tell Hinata his other secret. Oh, well, it would wait till after the announcement. He smiled. At least that secret was a good one. He looked up at the image of the Fourth, grinning, wondering what his father had been like in life. He'd have to ask Jiraiya. After all, he had been his father's sensei. He'd know. He held Hinata's hand gently as they waited.

A few minutes later, Hiashi arrived. He found the two lovebirds holding hands and looking at the mountainside images. He grinned his prankster grin, and decided to have some fun with the two of them. He sneaked up on them, careful not to make a sound, then put a hand heavily on one shoulder of each kid, making both of them jump so far they landed on their feet, yelling out as they did. He pulled back and laughed loud and long, his laugh deep and rich at the looks on their faces. After getting over their initial embarrassment, the two kids laughed along with him till all three of them were holding their sides and had tears falling from their eyes.

Just then, the Third Hokage came out and saw them laughing. He came over and said, "I'm glad to see this joyful day has already gotten such a good start." The three calmed down and smiled at him.

"Indeed it has, Lord Hokage," Hiashi said, bowing slightly. "This day will indeed be a joyful one if all of the village greets this couple with the same open arms I have shown them."

The Hokage laughed at Hiashi's optimism, but then said seriously, "Don't let the villagers' reactions put a damper on this day. You should all be very happy. This is indeed a joyful occasion, and one to be celebrated."

All three responded at the same time, "Thank you, Lord Hokage." The Third smiled, proud of his villagers, or at least these three. He could tell the two kids had a strong bond already.

It was about this time that Hiashi saw Hinata's ring. "Daughter, I don't believe you had that ring when you left this morning." Hinata smiled and showed it to him. He saw it was pure white gold after a moment, then turned to Naruto. "How did you come to afford that, young man?" He didn't really care, he was just curious.

"I made it, Father," Naruto replied. "Ask Hinata, she saw me do it." Hinata looked at her father and nodded. "I used my chakra to form it." Hiashi and the Hokage were both impressed by this, but neither really showed it. Naruto didn't care, he was proud of himself. He held Hinata's right hand gently, happy to be close to her. Hiashi and the Hokage smiled at the two kids, happy they had found love so early in life, and proud of the two for being so mature.

Soon, the villagers started to arrive on the square below. Some were there because they had been told Hiashi had an announcement, others because the Hokage had summoned them there, and still others had just followed the crowd. Only Sakura knew what was coming, and she only knew one part. No one there knew Jiraiya was going to show up and make his own set of announcements. When the Hokage got up and started to address the assembly, Naruto turned to Hinata.

"Hey, Hinata," he whispered. She looked at him and he gestured at the mountainside images. "Do any of them look familiar?" As he asked this, he set his face in the same expression as the image of the Fourth.

Hinata looked from Naruto to the images, and slowly she noticed there was one that did. "The Fourth...you look a lot like him." Naruto smiled.

"He's my dad," he told her. She gasped, then smiled at him.

"You're teasing me, aren't you?" she asked.

"No, not at all. Jiraiya told me he was the Fourth's sensei and that he was my father. Truly." Hinata smiled at this. She was even happier to be with Naruto now. She hugged him and he hugged her back, not ashamed, even though they were in front of the whole village.

The Hokage finished his greeting and Hiashi stood and addressed the village. "I thank you all for gathering here today. I have an announcement to make about my daughter and heir. I have arranged for her to be married. Hinata, please come up here." Hinata stood and joined her father, a happy smile on her face. "My daughter, Hinata, I have arranged for you to be married. Do you accept?" Hinata smiled and nodded. "Then would her future husband please come and join her?" Naruto rose and joined Hinata, taking her hand again. "Young man, Naruto, do you accept Hinata as your future bride?"

Naruto smiled, "I do, sir."

Suddenly, the villagers were very vocal. A few of the kids just smiled, Shikamaru for instance, while others, Ino for one, shrieked in envy that Hinata had her guy before they did, and still others cheered Naruto for getting such a beauty so early. Kiba was jealous of Naruto, but he determined to set that aside and give the knucklehead a chance, for Hinata's sake. Naruto and Hinata just smiled, realizing that even if they yelled, the villagers were getting used to the idea and accepted it. Naruto pulled Hinata closer and put an arm around her shoulders, smiling at her. She smiled back and they were about to go and sit down, when Hiashi finished his statement.

"That's all. I wanted to make this public knowledge so that no one could stop this marriage. My daughter's happiness is hereby assured." He was turning away to allow the Hokage to release the assembly, when suddenly there was a rather large burst of smoke. As it cleared, the villagers gasped as one. Jiraiya was there, standing where Hiashi had been just moments before.

Jiraiya glared at the villagers, then turned to the Third. "May I, Lord Hokage?" The Third nodded and Jiraiya turned back to the villagers with a very angry glare fixing them all. "HOW DARE YOU!" he yelled at them. He pointed at Naruto and gestured for him to come back there. He brought Hinata with him, not sure what was going on. "This young man has suffered your indignities, your beatings, every evil thing you have done to him, and he has never fought you back. He dreams of being Hokage one day, and you've all told him he's worthless. Do any of you know who this young man is?" The few who knew who Naruto was looked down, but most shook their heads. Hinata grinned proudly. Jiraiya pointed at the image of the Fourth and yelled at the villagers, "THIS BOY IS THE SON OF THE FOURTH HOKAGE!" Most of the villagers gasped. Most of them really hadn't known. "You all abused him because of what is inside him. The Kyuubi. Enough of this bullshit law, Hokage, it's time this ended. This boy saved this village from the demon by containing it within himself and you ALL abused him for it! And he's the son of the Fourth, who sealed the demon. And YOU ABUSED HIM! HOW DARE YOU!" Jiraiya seethed. He breathed deep to calm down, then turned to Hinata and Naruto. He said to them, quietly, "Would you both like to train with me?" Hinata gasped, blushed, then nodded. Naruto nodded as well of course. Jiraiya turned back to the villagers and told them, "From this day forth, these two young people will study under me. They will be my pupils from this day forth. Hiashi, you may continue to train your daughter of course, but they will both train with me as well. Any objections?" No one spoke, so the toad sage continued, "Good. Now, I'll turn you back over to the Hokage. But I warn you all, if this abuse doesn't stop RIGHT NOW, I will visit vengeance on the head of every single one of you who abuses this boy PERSONALLY!" The villagers cringed, and Jiraiya disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The Third walked back to the podium and told the assembled villagers that the assembly was over, then thanked them for coming and dismissed them. The assembly disappeared within less than a minute, and the Third proceeded back into his mansion, leaving Naruto and Hinata alone on the patio. They sat and talked a while, then Naruto walked her home. They talked excitedly about training together with Jiraiya, about the exams, about everything. They were both happy. Naruto returned Hinata to Hiashi, then went to seek out Jiraiya.

Jiraiya was waiting for Naruto in the scroll room. It didn't take Naruto long to find him there. He walked in and sat down, waiting for the sage to notice him. Jiraiya turned to him.

"I'm sorry I didn't warn you about that earlier, Naruto."

"It's okay. I actually was looking for you to thank you for doing that. That's the first time anyone has ever stood up for me in public like that. So, thank you, Jiraiya-sensei." Naruto bowed to his sensei. "Also, thank you for taking on Hinata as well. I was afraid if you were training me it would make it harder for me to see her, but now it'll be easier, so thank you for that too."

Jiraiya sighed. "Kid, I didn't do all that just to help you out." Naruto looked at him, confused. "I see a lot of raw talent in both you and that girl, and that talent is being wasted as it is, so I decided to help you both bring it out to better serve the village. And maybe you two can help me. Remember, I have a duty to take down Orochimaru if I can, and I suspect the two of you can help me with that." Naruto nodded, thoughtful. Jiraiya continued, "You've both got training in the morning, so bring her with you when you come here, all right?" Naruto nodded again. "Well, we've got an early morning ahead of us, so you better head home and get some rest."

"Yeah, I'll see you in the morning, sensei." Naruto bowed and left. Jiraiya smiled. He had been given permission to stay in his old student's home, so he got ready and went to bed. Naruto went home, ate a light dinner, and crawled into bed. And Hinata ate dinner with her family, too happy to be bothered by anything, then she also went to bed. The three all fell into bed at the same time and all fell asleep at the same time. Jiraiya was thinking of the training he'd be doing starting the next day, but both Naruto and Hinata were thinking of one another, and how great it would be to spend all day, every day, together. Training, dating, everything. They both smiled. Naruto once again, not for the last time, replayed his match with Kiba in his mind. He smiled, thinking yet again that a single call really could make all the difference in the world. He fell asleep smiling. Hinata was thinking of her battle with Neji, and how she had been inspired by Naruto to win, and then how she had helped Neji and earned his respect. She remembered Naruto calling out to her, and she thought that his call had made all the difference for her as well. So it was that she fell asleep smiling as well. Naruto, Hinata, and Jiraiya were all looking forward to the next day, each for his or her own reason. The two preteens kept thinking about how a simple thing could change everything, and Jiraiya kept thinking about how he was determined to not fail his new students. And so began a new chapter in all their lives.


	6. Hinata's Predicament

Author Note: Don't hate me. This chapter was hard to write. I hated writing it, which is why it took me so long to write it. Also, like I mentioned, there's something that will happen around chapter 8 unless I get huge review numbers against it, and this chapter makes that development obvious and shows why. Like I said, this chapter was torture to write, so bear with me. Also, this chapter is very short because I didn't want to have a huge emotional mess like this one mixed in with anything else. Chapter 7 will be much less tense, chapter 8 will involve the resolution of this chapter, then around chapter 10, Naruto's past will come out. Beyond that, I'm not sure what else I'm going to do, but yeah. Hope you guys like it, even though I hated writing part of this chapter.

Chapter 6

Naruto awoke the next morning, chuckling as he thought of the announcement the day before. He and Hinata were engaged, and now there was nothing anyone could do about it. He couldn't help wondering what he had done to deserve this, but he didn't really care. He got up, showered, dressed, all the normal morning stuff, and was about to walk out his door when there was a knock at the door. He jumped, surprised, then opened the door. Standing there was a very distraught Hinata. He immediately stepped back so she could come in, which she did.

"What's wrong, Hinata?" he asked her. He could tell this was something serious, and naturally, he was concerned.

"Naruto..." She came over and wrapped her arms around him, crying on his chest. He put his arms around her awkwardly, truly afraid now. What in the world could have happened to Hinata to have her here, crying, this early in the morning? It couldn't be Neji or her father...so what in the world had happened? While he was thinking this, he just held her and let her cry, not sure what to say or do.

While holding her, he made a shadow clone. It shut the door so they could have privacy, then set about doing a few chores, picking up, cutting some fruit for Hinata's breakfast, things like that. Once it was done, it dispelled itself. After several minutes, Hinata calmed down, and Naruto turned her to the table where some fruit and a cinnamon roll was sitting. She sat down and ate slowly, shaking a little. Naruto was always there, never getting out of her arms' reach. He made her some calming tea and she drank it slowly, carefully, so she didn't burn herself. Naruto waited patiently. He was burning with curiosity, but he knew she'd tell him when she was ready, so he waited.

Hinata watched the boy she loved, had loved for so long, knowing he must be curious as to what was going on, but she smiled as he waited. He was just there for her, and that was enough. As she ate and drank her tea, she felt herself calming down somewhat. By the time the fruit and pastry were eaten and the tea consumed as well, she was almost herself again. And still he said nothing, just sat there, watching her, waiting for her to speak. She knew this would happen eventually, she just hadn't thought it would happen yet. Damn it! Just when everything was so good, why did it all have to be ruined now? She knew after she showed Naruto this, she would lose him. She just knew it.

Naruto saw Hinata was getting ready to cry again, so he took her hand. She looked at him, and he said, "Hinata, I'm here. You can tell me. What's happened? What's going on?"

She was using a transformation at the moment, so she released it. That's when Naruto saw the first indication that something wasn't right. A large nasty bruise colored Hinata's face beside her eye. It stretched from her temple down her cheek to her jawline. On the other side, there was a bruise going from her temple up to her forehead. Her jaw looked like it had been abused as well, and though it wasn't bruised, it was obvious she moved it with considerable pain. Naruto was glad he had given her soft foods. Her neck had what looked like finger marks on it, also bruises, like she had been strangled, or someone had attempted to anyway. Naruto looked at her in shock, taking all this in. Her hands were also hurt, though not as bad. It looked like she had fought someone off and taken a few small wounds on her hands in the process.

Hinata saw the look in Naruto's eyes. He was shocked. She knew that would be the case, but she wasn't even showing him half of it yet. She knew...when he saw everything, he'd see how weak she really was, and she would lose him. She wouldn't even blame him, so she had already found out how to undo the blood oath and was going to release him so he could live and find happiness without her.

Hinata stood and took her coat off, hanging it on the door, and Naruto saw her arms were bruised as well. Not as badly as some other areas, but they were. Then she peeled out of her shirt (NO YOU PERVERTS, she's not topless, she has her bra on, she's just showing him what happened) and he could see that all around her waist she was bruised badly. She put her top back on, then rolled up her pant legs so he could see her bruised legs. She made the expression about feeling like one big bruise pretty damn literally true. The only parts of her body that weren't bruised or injured were her feet.

Naruto's shock was growing with everything Hinata did. What in the world had happened to her? That was his first thought. His second thought was, who did this to her? Hinata watched him closely and saw his worry and his anger. She mistook the anger as being directed at her for being weak and she started to cry again. Just as she started to sob, he took her in his arms and kissed her gently, carefully, not wanting to hurt her any more than she was already. Hinata pulled back and looked at him. In his eyes were anger, worry, but mostly love. She sighed. She had been wrong. She'd never been so happy to be proven wrong before. She pulled Naruto to her and hugged him as tight as she could in spite of her bruises. The pain didn't matter, she was in his arms. She sighed and cuddled closer to him. She felt his hands running through her hair and she whimpered in pleasure.

Naruto rocked her slightly, holding her close, running his fingers through her hair, careful not to touch her anywhere where she was bruised, not wanting to cause her pain at all. She seemed to be calming down, just having him hold her, so that's what he kept doing. He just held her and waited for her to calm down. It took her a while, but she eventually did calm down. She pulled back and looked up at him, and both realized that through this whole event, neither of them had spoken a word.

"Hinata...what happened?" Naruto broke the silence, somewhat reluctantly. He wanted...no, he NEEDED to know what had happened to his precious person, but the silence was comfortable.

Hinata looked down. "I was too weak, Naruto. I was so sure you would leave me when you saw this, but I needed to show you. I was too weak to defend myself." She looked up at Naruto, who just smiled comfortingly, waiting for her to continue.

Half an hour earlier, Hyuga compound

Hinata was already up and dressed and ready to leave for her day when it happened. She was on her way down the stairs to head out the front door when she heard a cold, sarcastic voice.

"Lady Hinata," it said. She turned and saw a member of the branch family looking at her with a cold look in his brown eyes. Brown eyes? Oh, right, she'd heard of this man, he didn't inherit the Byakugan from his father for some reason. "It seems my chance has come," he said. The next thing Hinata knew, she was at the bottom of the stairs, bruised as she was when Naruto saw her. The branch member had grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off her feet, and threw her into a wall, bruising her back pretty badly. He threw her down the stairs, and during her fall she hit her legs, head, face, and arms on the stairs. Her hands got hurt when she tried to grab the stairs, and they got dragged along the hard wood instead. The man watched her for a few moments, during which she didn't move, then he stalked off, probably believing she was dead. When she was sure he was gone, Hinata rose, whimpering in pain. She put up a transformation so she would look normal, then ran as fast as she could to Naruto's. That's how she came to be there so early.

At Naruto's

Hinata slowly, hesitantly, told Naruto what had happened. Naruto comforted her, holding her close and running his fingers through her hair, a gesture that seemed to calm them both a good deal, as she told her story. His rage was boiling, but he kept it in check. For Hinata, she was thinking of everything the two of them had already been through together. First her cheering him on, then her finding out about the fox, and now this. He had stuck with her throughout it all, and now he was showing that he wasn't going to leave her for being weak either. She backed away from him slowly, wishing she didn't have to, then went and sat down on his sofa to relieve the pain in her legs. Naruto followed and sat with her, taking her hands in his gently, needing the physical contact. She smiled; she craved it as well.

After sitting there and holding hands for some time, the two of them were calmed by one another's presence somewhat, and Naruto finally asked Hinata, "Now what?"

Hinata looked surprised. She hadn't thought of that. She didn't feel safe at home anymore. She looked at him, thinking. Here she was, sitting with Naruto at barely nine in the morning. He had opened his door to her, given her food (her favorite food at that), listened to her, held her, and when she showed him the bruises, he was shocked but he accepted her nonetheless. And she had seen the rage in his eyes. She now realized that his rage was directed at the one who had hurt her, not her herself. She suddenly realized she had been thinking for a couple minutes and hadn't answered his question.

"I...I don't know, Naruto." He waited. "I don't really feel safe at home. No one would believe me, they'd just say I must have fallen from tripping or something. And I know when he finds out that I'm still alive, he'll try something again if I go back. But I don't know what to do."

"Well, for tonight, you can stay here. We'll figure things out after that. Oh, crud." He made a shadow clone and sent it out the door.

"What was that for?" she asked, curious.

"I sent that one to get Jiraiya. He's our teacher, after all." She nodded, realizing he had a good idea. "And you're not going to be up for training today, so Jiraiya and I will stay here with you. Tonight you'll stay here, and we'll figure things out between now and tomorrow morning."

Hinata was surprised. Naruto was this willing to help her? Why? What in the world had she done to earn this loyalty? She didn't know, but she was glad she had it. Naruto still had his arms around her and was smiling at her gently as they talked and waited. They were both so involved in their own thoughts, neither was really paying attention to the conversation.

To prove my point, Hinata commented at one point, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Naruto's response was, "I don't see why you'd ever go out without your shoes."

To which Hinata answered, never missing a beat, "I'd go out with you anywhere Naruto."

Such is the result of being too absorbed in one's own thoughts to really pay attention to the conversation one is involved in. In any case, it wasn't long before a very worried Jiraiya opened Naruto's front door.

"What in the world is going on here?" he asked upon finding Naruto and Hinata wrapped in one another's arms. He came around in front of them, saw Hinata's bruised face and Naruto's worried look, and sat down in one of Naruto's chairs hard.

It took Naruto about ten minutes to fill Jiraiya in on what had happened to Hinata and how she had told him about it and so on. The only part he left out was about Hinata taking her shirt off. He didn't need Jiraiya getting a nosebleed just now. Jiraiya listened attentively to what Naruto was telling him, nodding a few times, stopping him with a couple questions here and there, but mostly just listening. Naruto, while surprised, was glad the pervert could take things seriously if necessary. He didn't even look at Hinata in an inappropriate way even once the whole time, which for Jiraiya was a major milestone. Naruto held Hinata possessively as he talked to the sage.

Jiraiya told them to take the day off, and told Naruto to take care of Hinata. He told them both that he'd make sure to let Hiashi know where Hinata was and what had happened, then he left.

Hinata turned to Naruto, "Are you sure I can stay here tonight?"

Naruto nodded. "And you can have the bed, I'll stay out here. I'll be right here if you need me. And if anything is wrong, don't hesitate to yell for me, all right?" She nodded.

Naruto spent the rest of the next day pampering Hinata, comforting her when she was in pain, making her lunch and then supper, eating with her, holding her when she was scared or sad, doing everything he could to make sure she was okay. Hinata appreciated this more than she could say, and she was surprised to find Naruto so willing to do it, yet she was happy with him. Naruto eventually carried her to his bed and laid her down on it. It wasn't the most comfortable one ever, but to Hinata it was better even than her oh-so-soft mattress at the Hyuga compound. Odd, she thought, that she didn't think of that place as home anymore. After all, after what she had gone through there, who would call it home?

After Hinata fell asleep that night, Jiraiya came back and sat Naruto down. They had some things to discuss. "Naruto, tell me, how much does this girl mean to you?"

"I love her. She's my fiancée, and she's the only one to ever really accept me, other than you. I want her to be happy more than anything. Why?"

"I spoke to her father, Lord Hiashi, and he felt that he would be unable to guarantee Hinata's safety in the Hyuga compound after the events of this morning. He said I should warn you that he may have to remove her from there for her safety."

Naruto almost volunteered to have her stay there, but he decided to wait until it came to be, if it did. Time would tell on that one, he knew, so he'd wait and see what happened. It felt good to have her there in his home with him, though, and he was glad to know she was safe, for tonight at least.

After Jiraiya left, Naruto went into the bedroom and watched over Hinata as she slept. She was so peaceful, so beautiful in her sleep. He didn't touch her, he just watched her sleep. As he watched her, he renewed his determination to protect her and to make sure no one ever hurt her...well, never again, anyway. He was still angry at the man who had hurt her, but he wouldn't do anything about it unless she asked him to do something, which he rather doubted she would. Naruto checked the time. It was two in the morning. He slipped out of the room, leaving Hinata asleep, and laid on the futon and fell asleep himself. He and Hinata each dreamed of the other. They were peaceful, sweet dreams that both needed after this stressful day.

A/N: Hope you didn't hate this too much. I'm making a poll for my chapter 8 plan. Also, I may well up the rating of this one for blood soon as well as possible other reasons later. We'll see. Anyway, hope to hear from you guys soon, vote in the poll, review this, whatever.


	7. Jiraiya's Solution

Author's Note: I mentioned in my profile I won't use honorifics. There is ONE I said I would use. I start using it in this chapter, and I know I'm using it right, so I have no hesitation in using it. Also, as I said, it's a pet name of sorts, so yeah. Don't expect any honorifics from me, except the one I use in this chapter, and I won't even always use this one.

Chapter 7

Hinata opened her eyes and looked around, extremely confused for a moment. Then she remembered the events that had passed. The attack, showing Naruto, him comforting her, all of it. She smiled, but then she remembered why she was there and what had just woken her up. She had been dreaming of Naruto, and suddenly he had transformed into the man who had hurt her and started attacking her. Of course, this scared the hell out of her and woke her up. And now...What time was it? She checked. Two thirty AM. Damn it. She shouldn't bother Naruto, she knew, but she needed to know he was okay and that he was there for her. But she couldn't bring herself to wake him.

"N-Naruto?" she whispered, barely able to keep herself from whimpering. She wanted him there desperately, but she didn't want to bother him if he was asleep.

Naruto heard her voice. He had been barely asleep, but the moment he heard her, he was wide awake. All she had said was his name, but that was enough. He got up, and moments later, he was there beside her, his crystal clear blue eyes looking into her pearly ones. She looked scared.

"What's wrong, Hina-hime?" He reached out and took her in his arms and pulled her to him gently, hugging her and holding her in his arms. He felt her arms go around him, which elicited a slight groan from him, but he just held her, comforting her.

"I had a bad dream, Naruto. I'm sorry for bothering you." He smiled at her to let her know it was fine, and she told him about her dream.

"I'm sorry, Hina-hime," he said, truly feeling bad for her. "I'm here. I won't hurt you. I love you, Hinata, now and always."

Hinata smiled at his declaration and snuggled into him, her arms wrapped around him tightly. Then she thought of something. "Will you stay with me, Naruto?"

Naruto looked at her in surprise. "I would never leave you, Hinata. Why would you ask that? I mean, we are engaged after all. I would never hurt you like that."

She smiled at his naiveté and shook her head. "No, Naruto, I mean right now. Will you stay here, in bed, with me, tonight?"

Naruto gasped. He hadn't thought of that. But he also knew he would never dare deny Hinata anything. He smiled. "I'll stay with you, Hinata. Now and always. I promise." He held her close and they laid down together. Naruto inconspicuously made a shadow clone and had it lay down on his futon (he had a plan for that one). She cuddled close to him, and Naruto groaned as his body...reacted to her. He held her close, careful not to let her feel...THAT. He couldn't believe he was turning into a damn pervert...then he thought again and realized he wasn't. He was just having a natural reaction to the proximity of a beautiful woman. He grinned at that thought. Hinata truly was beautiful. And she was his. He smiled wider, then held her close and both drifted to sleep, comfortable and comforted in one another's arms.

Five Hours Later

Naruto heard a knock on his balcony door. Jiraiya. No one else would do that. He did a quick substitution with his clone, giving the clone who now held Hinata a glare to not dare to do anything to her. A few moments later, the clone carefully slid out of bed without waking her and dispelled. Naruto laughed at the clone's nervousness, then opened the balcony door, letting Jiraiya enter his apartment.

Jiraiya saw that Naruto looked somewhat disheveled but decided this wasn't the time to embarrass his student. He was, after all, here on business. "Good morning, Naruto."

Naruto looked at him, tiredly, his eyes drooping somewhat. "Good morning, Sensei. What can I do for you?" He knew Jiraiya noticed how he looked, but was glad the old pervert didn't press the issue.

"I doubt you can do much of anything for me, Naruto. I'm here on business, and by the way, you and Hinata are going to take the next few days off from training until we get this situation all figured out." Naruto nodded, reluctant to lose the time, but knowing he had to take care of Hinata first. "I spoke to Hiashi and told him of Hinata's injuries and such. As I expected, he told me there was no way they could do much to the attacker. There was no proof after all. And there would be even less now. But he did say he understands that she must be removed from the Hyuga compound, at least until the attacker has been dealt with. So, what happened with you?"

Naruto gave Jiraiya an odd look, then saw the perverted grin he was getting and the slight drip of blood coming from his nose. "PERVY SAGE!" he yelled. "We didn't do anything, you jerk. And we have no intention of doing anything any time soon." Little did Naruto know, Hinata was dreaming of just that in the next room, which is why she didn't wake up when he yelled. Jiraiya grinned at Naruto, who slowly smiled back, then continued. "Look, we didn't do anything, but I won't deny I feel better having her here. As long as she's here, I know she's safe and I can protect her if something happens, so I won't deny I like that. But seriously, I would never dishonor her like that."

Jiraiya smiled at Naruto's reaction, laughing at his reaction to the nosebleed (that had been intentional), and then beaming proudly at his assertion to protect Hinata and her honor. He came over and hugged Naruto after he was done talking. Naruto, surprised, slowly hugged back. Jiraiya said, "I'm proud of you, kid. Your dad would be, too." Naruto blushed a little, then smiled at the sage.

"Thanks, Jiraiya-sensei. You may be an old pervert, but you're precious to me. You're the only connection I have to my father, and you're one of the only three people in my life who actually accept me. I have two in my home right now...and the Third." Jiraiya smiled at Naruto's play on words. "My life was such a wreck before, and now I have a sensei who cares for me, a fiancée who just happens to be the most beautiful girl I've ever met, and everyone knows who my father is, including me. You've done so much for me, sensei. Thank you."

Jiraiya smiled, tears in his eyes. He hadn't exactly expected Naruto to open up to him like that, but he was glad the kid had. After all, he owed it to Minato to take care of his son. He smiled, thinking of Minato. "I meant what I said, kid. Your father would be proud of you. You're quite a kid." Naruto smiled, blushing slightly at the praise.

"Oh, Jiraiya, about Hinata..." Naruto trailed off, not sure what to say.

"It's all right, Naruto, you can tell me." Jiraiya knew the kid had something in mind.

"All right. If she has to leave her family home...I want to talk to her about this, but if she's willing...and if her father is okay with it...I'd like to have her here."

Jiraiya thought a moment, sweat-dropped, then burst out laughing. After a few moments, he was rolling on the floor laughing, tears running from his eyes from laughing so hard. Naruto didn't know what was so damn funny.

"Okay, sensei, calm down." Jiraiya finally stopped laughing, gasping for air. "Okay, now, what the hell is so damn funny."

"I was just thinking of when your father first met your mother. She had been wounded in a battle and he immediately offered her his tent and sleeping bag, fed her, helped her wash, and basically saved her life. The whole idea of you sheltering Hinata like that made me think of those two." (A/N: I made this up. I don't know anything about Minato and Kushina's meeting. I just thought this would make an impact on Naruto.)

Naruto thought about it a moment, then chuckled, "So you're saying that what I'm doing for Hinata is like what my dad did for my mom." Jiraiya nodded. "Good. So, Dad really would be proud of me." Naruto smiled, thinking on that.

Jiraiya nodded again. "Told you so kid. Your father was a great man, and you're just like him. He would be very proud." Naruto blushed. After that, Naruto got up and got to work making breakfast for him, Jiraiya, and Hinata. He laughed as he made clones to do everything at once, then, once it was all ready, he dispelled them and went into his room to wake up Hinata. He smiled as he realized he wanted to do this himself as opposed to letting one of his clones do it.

Bending down, he kissed Hinata on the forehead, smiling at how beautiful she was. He thought a moment, then realized that he wanted her to always be happy. He wanted to make her happy, and spend his life with her. He really did love her. He smiled, then kissed her closed eyes, her cheeks, then her lips. The first few kisses woke her and she responded eagerly when he kissed her lips. Then she put her arms around his neck and they kissed deeply and passionately a little bit, then pulled apart, smiling at one another.

Naruto whispered, "Time to wake up, my love. Breakfast is ready." She smiled and got up, and he went back to the other room to wait for her. Naruto sat with Jiraiya to wait for Hinata.

Hinata slowly undressed from her night clothes and looked at her bruises, which were fading a bit, but she was still sore. She sighed, thinking of everything that had happened, then smiled as she remembered Naruto's reaction to all of this. She smiled, whispering to herself, "I love you, Naruto." She got dressed in her typical black mesh shirt, beige pants, and baggy jacket, then went out and found Naruto and Jiraiya talking quietly, waiting for her.

The three sat down to breakfast. Hinata was surprised a bit that it was so good. She looked at Jiraiya. "Did you help with this, sensei?"

Jiraiya laughed and Naruto blushed. "What, you think your fiancé can't cook? Naruto did all this on his own, my dear, and I can tell you he didn't do it for me."

Hinata smiled and blushed, then whispered to Naruto, "You did this for me?" He nodded. "Why?"

"Well, you've had a stressful few days, for one thing, and you're my fiancée, and I wanted to make sure you were okay, so I made this all for you. Besides, Hinata, I love you."

She blushed like mad, then smiled. "I love you, too, Naruto." Jiraiya was scribbling like mad, but Hinata sent a Gentle Fist strike at the notebook with a tiny bit of fire chakra, causing the pad to burst into flames. Jiraiya looked at her in surprise and she simply told him, "You will NOT use us, Jiraiya, got me?" He nodded slowly, wondering when this girl got claws. "This is a special moment for me and Naruto, and I will not have you using it in your perverted books. I'm sorry." Jiraiya smiled at her protectiveness and nodded.

They sat and ate together, Naruto and Hinata smiling at one another every once in a while, and Jiraiya chuckling at thoughts of Minato and Kushina, and how similar they were to Naruto and Hinata. After breakfast, the three went to train a little while, since they simply had nothing better to do. That done, they all went to the Hyuga compound and gathered up Hinata's belongings, clothing, and everything else she wanted. They left the room empty of any identifying mark that it was hers, leaving just the furniture pretty much. Hinata realized what was going on, but she was more than happy to do this.

By the time they had brought Hinata's things back to Naruto's apartment, it was lunchtime, so they ate a light lunch, then sat and talked for hours, all three relaxing and getting to know one another more. Hinata told Naruto and Jiraiya about growing up in the Hyuga compound, Jiraiya told them both about their parents when they were younger, and Naruto talked about his early years. He kept back what had happened that made him so bitter before finding out about Hinata's feelings and what had made him so willing to move so fast with her, though.

Naruto felt somewhat guilty keeping this back, but he knew it wasn't time to tell Hinata in particular yet. He knew he'd have to tell her sooner or later, but now wasn't the time. Soon, he promised himself, he'd tell her soon.

After telling stories and talking together, they ate dinner, then Jiraiya finally left the two kids to themselves, telling them he'd see them the next morning and, to Naruto in particular, he said he'd want their answer by then. Naruto nodded, and the sage left via the balcony door.

Naruto turned to Hinata and smiled. "Stay here again tonight?" She nodded, blushing. "I'll even sleep with you if you want again." She smiled, blushing even deeper, then nodded. He smiled. "I'm glad you feel so comfortable with me, Hina-hime."

Hinata smiled at him. He really cared for her. She realized then that he was willing to do anything she needed to help her, and she was happy. She smiled and put her arms around him and cuddled close to him, sighing contently. Naruto held her, running his hands through her hair and kissing her head lovingly. She smiled at him and held him close, reveling in how happy she was.

"Hinata?" She looked up at him, slightly worried when she saw he looked nervous. "Jiraiya was talking to me about this whole situation with you and your family and such." She nodded. "He and I talked about having you move in here with me." She gasped, then nodded for him to continue. "I would be more than happy to have you live here with me, Hinata. I love you, and having you here I'd know that you were safe and that you were taken care of. So...it's up to you really. Do you want to move in here with me?"

Hinata thought a moment, surprised. He was asking her to move in with him? She thought about her father and the rest of the clan. Her father wouldn't like it, but she knew it was his idea to move her out to begin with, so she knew he'd be alright with this. Then she looked at Naruto. Live with him? That's what she wanted with her life forever, so why not now? She thought a few more moments, almost laughing as she saw how nervous he was. She finally smiled and said, "I'd love to move in here with you, Naruto. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, so yes, I will move in here with you."

Naruto smiled, took her in his arms, and kissed her deeply. She responded eagerly and each one ran their hands over the other. After a few minutes, they each realized how their bodies were...reacting to one another, and they both backed off, blushing. Naruto smiled and she smiled back, then they kissed again, softly this time.

Naruto smiled at her and whispered, "I love you, Hinata." She smiled. "Let's get ready for bed, all right?" She nodded and got off his lap. "You first love. You get your shower and I'll get stuff out here taken care of, then we can trade off, all right?" She nodded and went to shower.

Naruto laughed at his reaction to Hinata and hers to him, then he got up and picked up the leftovers from dinner, did the dishes, and dusted a bit, just doing stupid things that needed to be done. He chuckled, thinking how easy this was when using shadow clones. Just as he was done doing his cleaning, he heard the shower turn off and smiled, deciding to pull a prank on Hinata.

Hinata was showering slowly, enjoying the heat and the feel of the water flowing over her body, her muscles relaxing and her bruises feeling less and less painful. She felt so...right here. Her body was relaxed, her heart was content, she just felt right. She grinned at herself as her mind drifted to Naruto's body having been against hers. She felt her body reacting again and she shivered. She laughed at herself and finished washing herself and rinsed off, then turned off the water. She slowly pulled back the shower curtain, smiling, slowly realizing she had just showered at Naruto's house. No...she was moving in...their house now. She smiled. She was so distracted by her thoughts, she didn't even notice right away when the bathroom door opened. Then she turned and looked and there he was, staring at her.

Naruto had planned on bursting in, finding her still in the shower, and "tripping" and "falling" and "accidentally" seeing her, but when he came in, there she was, standing in front of the sink, totally naked, totally involved in her own thoughts. He blushed, but he just couldn't look away. Her body was so perfect. Her skin, that alabaster white he had come to find so beautiful, was completely without blemish everywhere...and yes, he did see it all. She finally saw him standing there, blushed, then smiled and struck a pose, showing off her curves to him. He blushed and turned away a little, then looked back at her and whispered, "You're so beautiful, Hinata."

She blushed, "Naruto, you really think so?" He nodded. "I'm glad you approve."

Naruto smiled at her. "Of course I approve."

She grinned. "Your turn." Naruto looked at her, confused. "You've seen me, now show me you."

Naruto blushed and told her, "I...I'm sorry, Hinata, I don't want you to see me right now." He didn't want to tell her he was sporting a massive erection from looking at her. That would be really embarrassing.

"Why not, Naruto? You saw me, now come on, I want to see you."

"It's just...my body...I'm...reacting to you." She looked at him a moment, then laughed when she realized what he meant.

"Come on, Naruto, show me." He blushed, then slowly undressed for her. He blushed even redder as he slid his boxers off and his...reaction showed. She stared at his body, marveling at the definition of his muscles and the obvious strength in them. Then she saw his erection and blushed, then smiled. She knew that would be hers one day. She couldn't help wanting it now, but she knew the time wasn't right yet. She'd wait. She came over, hugged him, kissed him, and whispered, "I love you, Naruto, and one day, everything I see will be mine, just as everything you see will be yours. I promise."

Naruto blushed and whispered back, "I love you too, Hinata. And I promise you we will be together forever." Then he had an idea. "Hinata, would you like to join me in the shower?"

She blushed a moment, knowing he wasn't thinking anything sexual, then nodded. "I just got clean, but I'd love to join you." They climbed in the shower together and both cleaned up (Hinata needed it again, she was sweating like mad), then the two got out, dressed in their night clothes, and went and laid down together in bed, smiling at one another in the dark, the only light in the room coming in through the window from the full moon outside. Hinata kissed Naruto gently, he responded in kind, and the two laid together and marveled at how peaceful they felt like that.

Naruto smiled and asked Hinata, "When did you fall for me, Hinata?"

Hinata gasped. She had been thinking back to those days when they were younger herself. Had he been reading her mind? No, that couldn't be. She looked at him and said, "You remember the time you protected a young girl from a bunch of bullies, and then they all turned on you?" He nodded. "That was me."

"Really?" She nodded. "I didn't know that was you, but I guess I've been protecting you all along, huh?"

She smiled. "Yes, Naruto, you have. And you were always my inspiration, but after that, I realized I wanted to know you and be near you. So, I guess when you saved me that day was when I fell for you." Naruto put his arms around her and pulled her closer. She sighed and cuddled with him. "I love you so much, Naruto. Thank you. Between that and now, you've done so much for me."

He sighed and held her close. "I love you too, Hina-hime. And you've done more for me than I could ever do for you. Trust me." She smiled, but she was curious. She looked at him, questioning. "I'll tell you soon, my love, I promise. I'm just not ready to tell you just yet. Please, just trust me and wait for me?" She sighed, disappointed, but then she nodded.

"I'll wait, my love. I'm just glad I have you, that's all I need. And whenever you're ready to tell me, I'll be here." Then she snuggled closer to him and closed her eyes. As he ran his fingers through her hair, she reached up and returned the favor, playing with his hair. She smiled, realizing she liked the feel of his surprisingly soft hair. She also slowly realized that he liked her doing that, so she kept doing it, even as he was doing the same to her. She opened her eyes a moment, saw his eyes were closed, then closed hers again and both of them drifted to sleep together, arms around one another, hands tangled in one another's hair. They both had smiles on their faces and both of them slept deeper and more peacefully that night than they had in years.

Jiraiya and Hiashi watched the young lovers from across the street, Hiashi with his Byakugan, then both smiled at one another, nodded, and faded into the night, satisfied that Naruto and Hinata were going to be good for one another and were going to be happy together. No one saw the two as they silently agreed that the next generation was secure and faded into the darkness of the night.


	8. Group Bonding

Author's Note: As promised, this chapter resolves the situation brought up in chapter 6. The poll said move Hinata in, and that was my initial plan anyway, so that's happening now. Thanks for the reviews, everyone. Also, one person said my reasoning for getting Hinata out of the Hyuga compound didn't make sense due to their skills at reading body language and so on. I hereby acknowledge your point, you know who you are, however, I suggest you read this chapter and the next one, wherein that which is "underneath the underneath", so to speak, will be revealed. There IS a reason I used that particular tactic, and why the solution was to get Hinata out of there, and it's not just, "I want her out and need a reason." So bear with me, you'll see. Also, remember Naruto and Hinata are only like 12 right now, so they are still kids.

Chapter 8

Naruto awoke slowly, then nearly leaped from his bed when he realized he wasn't alone. 'No, Naruto. Calm down, think, remember,' he thought to himself. He opened his eyes and smiled when he saw Hinata. 'That's right,' he slowly remembered, 'she's here now, with me. I'll never be alone again.'

He was still staring at her and smiling softly when Hinata awoke and slowly opened her eyes. She had been awake for a few moments, going through most of the same thoughts Naruto had upon awaking. She felt fine, but was confused at first when she felt strong arms around her. Then she opened her eyes, saw Naruto and the smile on his face, and she couldn't help smiling back.

"Good morning, Hinata," he said, smiling lovingly at her. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, Naruto, thank you." She snuggled into his chest, feeling suddenly shy for some odd reason.

Naruto smiled at her reaction and held her gently to him, rubbing her back softly. Then his prankster side kicked in, and he started to tickle her; not hard, not mean, just playing. He tickled her sides, her legs, her feet, making her giggle like mad. Hinata was surprised when he started, but soon she was giggling wildly, then she decided to give as good as she got and started tickling Naruto back. Soon both were laughing like maniacs to the point they could barely breathe and both had tears flowing from their eyes.

"Well, you two seem to be having fun," a voice said, followed by a rather loud laugh.

"PERVY SAGE!" Naruto yelled, annoyed, after jumping about five feet. "What in the world are you doing here?"

"Checking up on you two, of course. And honestly, I'm glad you two are so close," he chuckled. "It's good to see your parents' wishes coming true."

Naruto and Hinata looked at him in confusion, then both remembered what he'd told them about their mothers being best friends, and the two grinned at one another. They didn't care what the old pervert said, they were happy together. Suddenly, Jiraiya had two preteens tackling him and tickling him all over. He gasped in surprise, and then all three were laughing and tickling one another, Jiraiya laughing and thinking how great it was to feel like a kid again. All three felt closer to one another than they'd felt to anyone else in a long time; Naruto felt like he had a family, Hinata felt truly loved by someone other than her father, and Jiraiya, for the first time, felt like he truly WAS Naruto's godfather.

After half an hour of play, the three sat up and panted, finally remembering how to breathe. Naruto kept looking at Hinata and chuckling, which of course made her giggle. Jiraiya was looking from one to the other, looking like he wasn't quite done with either of them, which of course set all three of them to laughing. They spent about an hour like that, just enjoying one another's company, feeling like a family.

Naruto couldn't believe that he had these bonds, finally, after all these years. He really wouldn't care if the rest of the village died, but these two, he realized, were precious to him. Well, them and the old man, the Hokage. And Konohamaru, but that's about it. The old man had looked out for him when no one else had when he was just a little kid, so he didn't want him to suffer, and now Hinata and Jiraiya had accepted him and loved him without condition. He slowly realized that he was starting to think of the old pervert as a father, and of course, Hinata was his fiancée. Somewhat absorbed in his thoughts, Naruto sat back and sighed, feeling rather content.

"What are you thinking about?" Hinata, perceptive as always, asked him.

"Just how precious you two are to me." He took her hand in his and smiled at Jiraiya. "Hinata, you're my future, my family. And Jiraiya...you're the closest thing I've had to a father. You both mean so much to me." The two mentioned smiled; Hinata hugged him, and Jiraiya reached over and ruffled his hair affectionately. "Thank you both."

After this, the three sat in silence for some time, just thinking of how good it was to have someone, how peaceful the three felt together, and how close they already were, which amazed all three, and really, all three just felt good in general, like the future was bright simply because they were all together.

Eventually, Jiraiya got up and went out to the living room, telling the two to get ready for the day. Naruto and Hinata got dressed, both feeling slightly shy changing around one another, but both felt it was right. They dressed in their normal training clothes, Naruto in his orange jumpsuit and Hinata in her baggy coat, then they looked at one another and laughed at the normalcy of it. Naruto came over and put his arms around her, and the two hugged gently, then kissed, then went to the living room to rejoin Jiraiya.

Jiraiya

While the two preteens were getting ready, Jiraiya opened the apartment door and let in a rather stiff Hiashi. The two sat down to discuss the final details of their plan while the two kids were missing.

"How did Naruto take it?" Hiashi asked.

"He seemed more than happy to have Hinata here. I doubt you could tear the two apart now. I actually walked in on them tickling one another. That was amusing. Then they dragged me into it," Jiraiya said, trying, and failing, to keep his smile hidden.

"You don't seem to have minded," Hiashi teased, grinning.

"No, I didn't. It was fun to feel like a kid again. That...and what Naruto told me didn't hurt either." Hiashi raised an eyebrow. "He told me I'm like a father to him." Hiashi looked surprised. "I know. I think I'm the only one to really stand up for the kid, so he sees me as a line of defense in a way. And he's never had that, so he's decided I'm precious to him. Me and Hinata both; he sees us as his family now. I doubt you would be able to get him away from either of us without either killing us or coming close to death yourself."

Hiashi smiled. He was really happy for his daughter to have found such a caring boy. "He'll be a good man. A good husband and father, some day." Jiraiya nodded. "So it seems our plan has worked then? It's bringing Hinata out of her shell, making Naruto calm down, and bringing family to them both."

"Yes, it's worked better than either of us thought it would. I'm glad to see it coming to fruition."

Hiashi laughed at Jiraiya's awkward formality. "I'm glad to see it's worked too. Hinata is a sweet girl, and she deserves the best. I'm happy to see she's found it."

Jiraiya nodded, pondering. "I suppose this will make it easier when I have to take him away from the village. Which will be soon, by the way." Hiashi nodded, understanding what Jiraiya meant. "You'll miss her, won't you?"

"Of course I'll miss her. She's my daughter after all. But I'm confident that you and Naruto will keep her safe and that she'll be loved. Will she return to me a Hyuga?"

"I rather doubt it. But if you request it, I will see to it she does."

"I'd rather she did. If not, at least promise me you'll alert me so I can be at their wedding. I want to give her away myself."

Jiraiya burst out laughing, then nodded. "That's the least I can do, I suppose. I'm sure Hinata would want you to be there. And Naruto would probably be proud as well to have that occur. I would be there as Naruto's father, of course, so I would be very glad to see you there when I danced with Hinata."

Hiashi couldn't help it, he burst out laughing at that image. "I only wish my wife could be there to dance with Naruto at the same time." He looked a little sad at that thought, then remembered how close his wife had been with Kushina. He grinned. "I'm sure their mothers would be proud of them." Jiraiya nodded, then Hiashi continued, "I better get going. I look forward to hearing from you again, Master Jiraiya. And don't forget." Hiashi bowed slightly and left. Just as the door closed behind him, the door to Naruto's room opened.

Naruto and Hinata

As they came out, they found Jiraiya standing in the kitchen area looking at the door as if pondering something. Naruto jabbed Hinata's side gently and gestured at the distracted pervert. She giggled and nodded. Naruto gestured her to go behind him and Naruto slunk over in front of Jiraiya. Hinata giggled when she was directly behind him, on the far side of the couch from him, then Naruto jumped and shoved him backward. Jiraiya stumbled and fell onto the couch, Naruto on top of him, then Hinata jumped at the two of them, and suddenly, the three found themselves in the middle of round two of their tickle fight from earlier. Soon, the three were giggling just as loud and hard as they had been before, tears streaming from their eyes as they tried to remember how to breathe.

After the three calmed down, they sat and laughed together a while, Naruto holding Hinata and Jiraiya smiling at the two of them happily.

"Come on you two lovebirds. Let's get some breakfast so we can go train," Jiraiya said, smiling. Naruto got up and made eggs, bacon, toast, and juice for the three of them. They all sat down to eat, then Jiraiya teased, "I'm surprised you know how to make all this, Naruto. I thought all you ate was ramen."

Naruto grinned at the jab, but answered seriously. "I only eat ramen so much because Teuchi and Ayame accept me. I feel safe there, and that's rare for me. I learned how to cook a lot of stuff from some recipe books I found in my father's house. I don't know how or why, but I've always had a natural knack for cooking." He shrugged, smiling sadly as he thought of all the meals he'd made alone just for himself, then smiled a little happier when he realized that he'd always have someone to share meals with now. "I'm just glad you two like it." They both nodded, then the three finished their meals in comfortable silence, each one thinking of how bright their future together looked.

After breakfast, they left and headed to a nearby training ground, Naruto and Hinata walking hand-in-hand, Jiraiya just behind them, watching to make sure they weren't bothered by any of the villagers. No one bothered them, not now. Between Jiraiya's presence and Naruto's now-known heritage, they wouldn't dare. And Hinata's activated Byakugan didn't hurt either. For her part, she was glaring at any villager who had the nerve to glare at Naruto. Naruto smiled, knowing these two people, so precious to him, were defending him from the villagers.

Naruto kept thinking about his dream of being respected, of having people care, and he knew he'd more than achieved his dream. He had Hinata, Jiraiya accepted him, the villagers didn't like him, but they weren't bothering him anymore. He was happy. Then he had a thought. He needed a new dream. With no dream to keep him focused, what reason did he have to keep training? He shook his head, putting that thought out of his head for now. He'd think about that later.

Elsewhere in Fire Country

Unbeknownst to Naruto, some hundred miles away, a young looking woman with blond hair in pigtails, and another with dark hair laying straight down to her shoulders, walked through a rather seedy part of a small commercial town. The brunette carried a small pig in one hand and a pink briefcase in the other. The briefcase was full of small denomination bills; quite a few of them at that. Tsunade, the blond, knew there was about two thousand ryo in there. Shizune, the brunette, was nervous. She knew that look on Tsunade's face. And she rather doubted that briefcase would last. Tsunade was called the Legendary Sucker for good reason.

She had no luck or skill at gambling, and yet she couldn't seem to stop. Tsunade knew that her luck was bad. She had long since gotten used to that. Yet she couldn't stop. She knew it was an addiction, just like her drinking, and both of those were addictions Shizune was determined to break in her. She chuckled at Shizune's nervousness, knowing what she was thinking. She also knew if Shizune was right, which she probably was, her money would run out, but her luck in something else would be good. That's why she gambled with her money. As long as she had bad luck in that, she always had good luck in other areas of her life, which, to her, were far more important. After all, she had a more or less inexhaustible fortune.

They entered a seedy gambling hall, Tsunade anxious to start, Shizune apprehensive, of course. Tsunade sat down and opened her briefcase, turned in her money, got her chips, and got ready to start. Shizune saw the looks on everyone's faces and her apprehension grew even more. They knew who Tsunade was, of course. Damn it! Now the money was really going to leave fast.

Half an Hour Later

Tsunade was getting worried. She had started with about two thousand ryo, but now she had well over three hundred thousand. She hadn't lost a single hand since she sat down. Shizune seemed pleased, but Tsunade knew when she got lucky in gambling, her luck in other things went to hell really fast. She had NEVER hit it this big before. What in the world was going to happen? It wasn't good, that was for damn sure. And to hit it this big at cards? Okay, what the hell. THAT NEVER HAPPENED! Not for her, anyway.

Tsunade kept a calm face on as she cashed out and took off, barely able to carry her cash. Shizune knew something was up, but didn't dare ask. She just followed Tsunade. The two knew one another well enough that words were unnecessary. Shizune knew when Tsunade hit it big like this, something bad happened every time. And this was Tsunade's biggest haul yet.

Naruto and Hinata

Meanwhile, totally unaware of the bad luck that was coming their way, Naruto and Hinata were training together. They had both mastered the Rasengan by now, and Naruto was working hard to get all of the elements into it at once. He had gotten the order down after experimenting a bit, but the last element he had to put in was earth, which was his hardest single element, especially for this, so of course he was having trouble with that. He had gotten wind, lighting, fire, and water into it several times, just to have it fall apart as he tried to add earth. Hinata was working on getting her water chakra into hers at the same time, since that was her affinity. Naruto smiled at her and showed her the four-element one he had at present. It glowed an odd shade that resembled purple more than anything else. Then he focused a bit more and started to try to get the earth into it again. He saw Hinata smiling at him, and his confidence rose. He smiled wider and focused harder, and suddenly, his Rasengan was white. He gasped, but kept it there. He then turned and shoved it into a nearby rock, which totally disintegrated. He turned and looked at Hinata, grinning like mad, and she took her water version to the stream nearby, and sure enough, the water reacted. It was spinning around her as she stood on it, reacting to the power of her Rasengan.

She smiled at him, then plunged it into the water, grinning as the whirlpool grew around her as her water chakra made the water spin around itself like mad. She dispelled the jutsu then ran to Naruto and embraced him. He responded in kind, and the two stood together like that for a while, just enjoying being close to one another.

Jiraiya wanted to interrupt them, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. They had been training hard all morning, and the two deserved a moment to themselves. He just stood back and smiled, realizing he thought of them as his family. Naruto his godson, and Hinata his goddaughter, more or less. He smiled, thinking of what would come when they were married. Kids, of course, and Jiraiya giggled to himself thinking of what that meant, getting a slight nosebleed. (PERVERT ALERT!) He smiled after that, thinking of becoming a grandfather, even if it was indirectly. Then he reminded himself how young his two charges were, and realized he had a few years to wait.

A short time later, Jiraiya told them they'd be leaving fairly soon to train, just the three of them. He told Hinata he'd teach her everything he could about the Gentle Fist, and he told Naruto he'd teach him everything he knew, from ninjutsu to every seal he'd ever performed. When they asked why, he simply replied, "You'll need it, both of you." He then refused to say any more about it.

Naruto decided to be happy about this. He was going to spend a long time with just his precious people, his father figure and Hinata. He smiled, once again thinking of how bright the future was. Then his thoughts returned to his dark past, and he knew he'd have to face that and tell the other two about it sooner or later, but he decided later was plenty soon enough.

Hinata was ecstatic. She had only just gotten out of the Hyuga compound and moved in with Naruto, her dreams coming true in ways she never imagined, and now this? It was just too much. Once she had learned of everything, she smiled, blushed, got a nosebleed (yes, she's having those thoughts, the little closet pervert), and fainted.

Some ten minutes later, Naruto finally woke her up, laughing slightly about her fainting spell. He grinned at her. "I thought you were over that," he joked.

"I did, too," she responded, "but apparently not."

"Did you hurt yourself or something? Your nose is bleeding." He sounded worried. Jiraiya and Hinata both laughed at this, then laughed harder when he looked at them both with confusion written on his face. "What's so funny?" he humphed, annoyed. This, of course, sent the other two into all new levels of laughter. Eventually, even though he had no idea why they were laughing, the sight of Jiraiya and Hinata doubled over laughing got to be too much, and Naruto burst out laughing as well. Shortly they were all rolling on the ground, holding their sides and laughing like maniacs.

The rest of that day passed in relative peace, the three of them bonding together and becoming much like a true family. Naruto was happy, Hinata felt at peace, and Jiraiya was content. They all felt the future was bright, and they all knew that whatever was coming, good or bad, they would face it together. Little did they know that their little group wouldn't face it alone...


	9. Retrieve Tsunade

Author's Note: This chapter contains a lime. You are hereby warned.

Chapter 9

The morning after Naruto, Hinata, and Jiraiya had their bonding session, the three of them found themselves summoned to the Hokage's office. The three bowed to Sarutobi.

"You called for us, Sensei?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes, Jiraiya. I wished to tell you that the three of you are going to be assigned another team member. I have spoken to the young man and he is aware of your...special nature, Naruto, and he accepts it. Team Seven is gaining a member from his team, and his team is being dissolved. Incidentally, it's one of your old teammates, Hinata. Your team has been disbanded. Shino will be joining you two, and Kiba will take Naruto's place on Team Seven," Sarutobi said all this as clearly as he could. He was somewhat worried about how the three would react to this.

"Understood, Lord Hokage," the three spoke as one.

Naruto thought a moment, then said, "So Shino knows, huh?" Sarutobi nodded. "How did he find out?"

"I told him. Given the reaction of your former teammates, I wanted to make sure whoever you were teamed with now, you would be accepted by that person. Shino sees you as a comrade and one who is worthy of his loyalty regardless of what is inside you, so I doubt you'll have any problems with him."

Naruto nodded. He was glad to have another true friend. He smiled. Things were finally looking up for him. He put an arm around Hinata gently; she smiled and blushed, not really caring who saw what they were doing. "Thank you, Lord Hokage," Naruto said.

"Okay, now, this is not exactly normal procedure, but since all three of you were enrolled in the Chuunin exams, and since the finals are individual anyway, I'm going to allow you to compete. However, there is a mission I need the three of you to complete before then," Sarutobi said, feeling every one of his years weighing on his bones. He sighed. He hated doing this to them, but he had no choice. "I need the four of you, counting Shino, to find and bring back my successor. I have made my choice, and I need the four of you to retrieve her. I would normally not send you on missions before the exams, but I need her here before then, so I have no choice. Your squad is the only one available. Obviously, this means you have a rather tight time limit. I need you to find her and get her back here within two weeks. Oh, and Naruto, that promise I made you still stands. I just realized that I need to retire a bit sooner than that."

The three nodded, then bowed slightly. Naruto was slightly disappointed, but he understood; Sarutobi was an old man, after all. They turned to leave to find Shino and get on their way. Naruto was the only one who spoke. In his old goofy way, he grinned at the Hokage and said, "Leave it to me, old man! I'll find her and get her back here for you." Then all three were gone, leaving Sarutobi chuckling and shaking his head. In spite of himself, he was glad to see Naruto coming back to his old ways, at least a little.

Half an Hour Later

Naruto arrived at the gate of the village, grinning when he saw the other three waiting for him. Hinata had found Shino at his home, and then all three had met up and gone to the gate to wait for Naruto. Hinata smiled shyly at him, Shino nodded, and Jiraiya gave him a kindly smile.

Jiraiya waited till his whole team was there, then spoke. "Let's move out, kids." Moments later, all four of them were jumping through the trees from branch to branch. Naruto and Hinata naturally gravitated toward one another. Shino was used to being by himself, so he was off by himself a little, and Jiraiya was ahead of the others as he led the way. He was, after all, the only one who knew where they were going.

Naruto reached out and took Hinata's hand in his, smiling shyly. Hinata smiled back, blushing a little, and the four of them traveled like that, Naruto and Hinata linked, and Shino and Jiraiya each absorbed in their own thoughts. The small group was glad it was early in the morning. It was still cool, and it gave them all day to travel if necessary.

Evening

They had traveled all day, Naruto and Hinata clinging to one another's hand, Jiraiya leading the way, and Shino simply jumping with the others. Soon enough, just as the sun was beginning to meet the horizon, they arrived at a small town. Jiraiya's spy network had told him this is where Tsunade was. She was their target. He chuckled, thinking of the time he had spent with her when they were both kids. He looked briefly at Naruto and Hinata; the look Naruto had in his eyes reminded him of himself when he had looked at Tsunade. Hinata, for her part, looked pleased. He smiled and led the team into the town.

Within ten minutes, they had secured two rooms in a hotel. Naruto and Hinata would share one, Shino and Jiraiya the other. The four divided into their rooms; Shino laid down almost immediately and fell asleep. He was used to rising and setting with the sun, so he was tired, especially after their long trip. Jiraiya had heard already that Tsunade was in town just now, so he went out to find her.

Naruto and Hinata went into their room and sat down together. Naruto took Hinata's hand gently; she smiled at him and blushed. They had been together all day, and neither had said a word. Just being together was enough. Now, they were alone.

Naruto sighed. "That was a long trip."

Hinata nodded. "Yes, it was. I'm really tired. I'm sure my legs will be stiff tomorrow. And my back is killing me." Naruto couldn't help it, he grinned at that. Hinata noticed his grin. "What?"

"Would you like...a massage?" he asked her, smiling lovingly. Hinata gasped; no one had ever asked her that before. Naruto saw the shocked look on her face and explained. "I've been told I have magic hands; I gave Sakura a massage once when she pulled a muscle and she said it was really good. That was before..." his voice trailed off. He didn't want to talk about that. Not yet, anyway.

Hinata saw that he was upset and rushed to reassure him. "I'd love one, Naruto. I just wasn't expecting you to ask that. No one's ever offered me that before."

Naruto smiled. "Do you trust me, Hinata?"

She gave him and odd look, then nodded. "I trust you with my life, Naruto. Now and always. But why do you ask that?"

Naruto laid a hand on her leg gently; she gasped at the sudden contact, then he started to massage her leg and she could feel her muscle relax under his hand. She gave him an odd look. "You said your legs were sore too. I was wondering if I could try something. It's something I've never done before, but always wanted to." Hinata gave him a questioning look; he continued, "I've always wanted to give someone a full-body massage."

She gasped. She loved the very idea. She thought about his hands running all over her body, touching her everywhere. She grinned at the idea; even if she did get a slight nosebleed, the idea was very pleasant to her. She looked up at him, wiping the blood from her nose, smiling; she nodded. "That sounds very nice, Naruto."

He chuckled. "There is a bit of a catch though," he told her. She looked nervous.

Jiraiya

On the other side of town, he was entering a small bar, thinking he'd likely find his target in a place like this. He looked up and sure enough, there she was. He chuckled at his luck. That was easy. "Tsunade!" he called out, pointing a finger at her.

Tsunade looked up. She couldn't believe it. Her old teammate was standing there pointing at her. She stood up and cried out, "Jiraiya?" He chuckled and walked over to her. He sat down in the booth she was sharing with Shizune and Ton Ton.

"Hello, Tsunade, Shizune," he said, nodding to each woman. "I'm glad I found you."

"What do you want, Jiraiya?" she asked, flustered and annoyed to have been found by her old teammate. She didn't hate him, she just didn't like being caught off-guard like this.

"All right, I'll get right to the point. You've been chosen as the Fifth Hokage; along with three Gennin, I have been sent to retrieve you and bring you back to the village," Jiraiya said.

Tsunade was shocked, then laughed. Her immediate reaction was to refuse, but then she thought about it. She remembered the two people she had truly loved, both dreaming to be Hokage. She thought of them and her grandfather, who had been the First Hokage, and eventually she nodded. "I'll do it, but on one condition," she said softly.

"Name it," Jiraiya said, smiling. He had thought she'd refuse at first, so this was an improvement.

"No more research." Jiraiya gasped at her answer. Then he thought a moment.

"That's fine. I won't have time to do any research anyway. I'll be too busy training my team," he said, chuckling. Tsunade looked surprised. Jiraiya explained. "I said I was sent here with a trio of Gennin. One of them is Minato's son." Tsunade looked shocked at this. He continued. "Then there is Hinata Hyuga, heir of that clan, and Shino Aburame, heir of his. They are a team, and I am their sensei. So I won't have time to do my research anyway, I'll be too busy taking care of them and training them." He then explained the situation with Naruto and Hinata, and why Shino was on their team. Tsunade chuckled, thinking of Minato's son being with Hiashi's daughter. She knew both their mothers had wanted just that, so she was happy for them.

"All right. I'll come back and do the job. I take it you all are in a hotel tonight?" Jiraiya nodded, telling her the hotel and room numbers where they were and who was in each room. She raised an eyebrow at Naruto and Hinata being in a room alone, but she remembered that they were engaged and let it pass. She chuckled, thinking of the two of them living together as well, and realized that she was going to have an interesting situation there.

Jiraiya had also told her that Hiashi was aware of the two of them living together and that he approved of it. She nodded, pondering that. After half an hour of making plans, the old teammates separated. Jiraiya returned to his hotel room, where he found Shino sound asleep, and Tsunade went to pack her things from her own room. They had agreed to meet the following morning at the main gates of the town to head back to Konoha.

Naruto/Hinata

Hinata looked at Naruto, confused and slightly concerned. A catch? That's what he'd said, there was a catch. She knew that had seemed too good to be true. His hands on her, relaxing her, yeah, that was too much. There had to be a catch.

"Okay. What's the catch?" she asked nervously. She watched Naruto's eyes. He was looking at her body, seemingly nervous himself.

"Well, when I give a massage, I need to touch the skin directly. It wasn't bad when Sakura hurt herself, because she hurt her arm, but if I'm going to do your whole body..." he trailed off again, nervous. He thought she'd hate him for this, but he really wanted to do it.

"What is it, Naruto?" she asked. She had an idea what he had in mind, but she wasn't sure. The idea of what she thought he was talking about made her giddy with excitement. She thought he wanted her to be naked, but she wasn't about to say that. If she was wrong, he'd think she was a pervert or something.

"Well, if I'm going to massage your whole body, I'll need you to be naked," he said, looking away from her and blushing. "I promise I won't look. I just need your skin to be bare so I can massage you."

She blushed. She was right! He did want her to be naked! And he'd said it. She thought a moment. Yes, she wanted this. She wanted him to see all of her. She was nervous thinking about it, but it excited her, too. She turned and looked at him, seeing hope and fear in his eyes. She smiled at him. "All right. And it's okay, you don't have to look away, Naruto."

He blushed bright red. "Are you sure, Hinata? I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

She nodded. "All of me is yours, Naruto. So it's perfectly all right for you to see me." They were both blushing as they thought of this.

Naruto came to her and kissed her gently. She responded, kissing him back. The two put their arms around one another and kissed each other over and over, never getting any deeper or harder, simply enjoying the contact between one another. After several minutes, the two pulled back, Hinata having ended up sitting on Naruto's lap during the kiss. They smiled at each other.

Naruto turned and pulled out a scroll. He laid it on the floor and touched two spots on it; it spread out in a seal and covered the walls of the room, along with the windows and the door. He turned to Hinata. "Now no one can see or hear into here. They'll see a black room if they look and they'll hear nothing. I'm glad I learned that seal," he explained, chuckling.

Hinata kissed him again, gently, then she turned away from him. Naruto watched her. She felt his eyes on her as she slowly removed her jacket. She slowly lifted her top off, then unfastened and removed her bra as well, tossing both things aside. Then she turned to face him slowly, blushing. She had her arms covering herself. She slowly lowered her arms, exposing herself to him.

Naruto blushed, surprised at how well-developed Hinata was. He almost looked away, but instead he looked up into her eyes and smiled. She blushed deeper and smiled back. After hesitating a moment, she bent down and removed her pants and panties as well. He blushed, looking at her whole body.

Hinata looked at him. "What?" she asked, seeing him looking at her.

"You're so beautiful, Hinata," Naruto said, smiling at her. He came to her, took her in his arms, and kissed her again. She responded eagerly, her body excited by him being so close to her and by her nudity. Naruto led Hinata to the bed and laid her down on her stomach; she turned her head to the side, getting as comfortable as she could.

Naruto went over to her, marveling at her body. He couldn't understand why she hid her beauty in her baggy clothes like she did, but, in a way, he was glad she did. That way, only he would ever see her this way. Naruto chuckled and got onto the bed. He straddled her and rested his weight on her butt. He reached up, put his hands to her shoulders, and started massaging her. His hands gripped her shoulders and rubbed, gently but firmly. She could feel a slight bit of his chakra going into her and her muscles relaxed under his hands. She moaned in pleasure, feeling her stiff muscles relax.

Naruto smiled at her. He kept massaging her shoulders and leaned down and kissed her back. She stiffened a little in surprise, then relaxed even more. He moved to her arms, massaging every muscle in them until they relaxed completely. Hinata sighed in pleasure, feeling her body become like putty. She squirmed under Naruto's touch, not trying to move, just feeling very good. He moved from her arms to her back, down her back, and eventually to her legs. Everything he touched seemed to relax and become like putty in his hands. Hinata gasped when his hands trailed over her butt, but she didn't move. He moved on to her legs and massaged them.

After about twenty minutes of this, Naruto moved up and started to gently rub her back, not massaging now, just rubbing gently. He leaned down and started to kiss her back, his lips following his hands. Hinata shivered under his touch, feeling her body react to him. She felt warm inside, her body getting excited, a warmth touching every part of her body, starting deep in her core. She shivered, her eyes closed in pleasure. Her mind drifted, and she suddenly realized something. She wanted him. All of him. She knew what sex was, but she'd never desired it before. Now, with Naruto's hands on her and his lips caressing her back, she did. She wanted him inside her.

Naruto was feeling something similar. He had had an erection from time to time, yes, but he had never been around a girl like this before. He didn't know how sex even worked. All he knew was that every time he touched Hinata's body, his body reacted. Her reactions said she enjoyed what he was doing, so he kept doing it. His lips caressed her back, his hands rubbed up and down her back and sides, and his legs rubbed against hers gently.

Hinata decided what she would do. She wanted him, but she wasn't ready for that just yet. She did want to see his body though. She shifted and tried to roll over. He felt her move and lifted off her. She rolled onto her back, then pulled him down and kissed his lips deeply. Naruto reacted eagerly. Hinata, blushing deeply, reached up and unzipped Naruto's jacket. She slipped it off him; he blushed, but let her do what she wanted. She lifted his top off, then marveled at the sight of his trim chest, his firm abs. She blushed, then put her hands on him, feeling his firm muscles.

Naruto closed his eyes, the pleasure of her touch coursing through him. His body was reacting to her, and he knew he wanted her, but he didn't want to make her do anything she wasn't ready for. After a few moments, Hinata reached down and removed his pants and boxers as well. He rolled off her and laid by her, not wanting her to feel uncomfortable from having his body against hers. Hinata's eyes roamed over Naruto's body. She blushed, her body desiring his, but knowing it was too soon. She came to him, putting her arms around him and pulling his body to hers. She felt his erection against her and blushed. She didn't do anything about it, but she loved feeling it against her. He seemed uncomfortable, but he didn't pull away. He put his arms around her as well, smiling at her.

Hinata whispered, "It's okay, Naruto. I want this. Just no more than this for now, okay?"

Naruto nodded. "I'm surprised you'd even do this much. Thank you, Hinata."

She sighed in pleasure and cuddled up to him. She laid her head against his chest. Naruto held her close and closed his eyes. She saw this and knew they both were tired. She closed her eyes as well. Both were asleep within moments, neither bothering to pull a blanket or sheet over themselves.

The Next Morning

Naruto awoke slowly. He realized after a moment that he was naked. Then he realized he wasn't alone. Hinata, also naked, was in his arms. After a moment, he remembered the night before and smiled, rubbing her back. Hinata slowly stirred in his arms. She looked up at him, coming to the same realizations as him and remembering the previous night. The two kissed and held one another close, not even caring they were both naked. That is, until they heard the door open.

Naruto looked and saw the very last person he wanted to see at that exact moment. Jiraiya was standing there, mouth having fallen open, eyes trailing over both people in the room. Hinata squeaked and Naruto threw himself over her, covering her body from Jiraiya's wandering eyes.

"Get out of here, Jiraiya!" Naruto shouted. The old man came to his senses. Well, as much as Jiraiya ever does that, anyway.

"Way to go, kid! I knew I trained you well!" Jiraiya said proudly, flashing Naruto two thumbs up. Naruto flew out of bed, not bothering to cover himself, and shoved Jiraiya out the door. He slammed the door and locked it, then turned back to Hinata. Her face looked to be on fire from blushing, and she was covering herself with the sheets from the bed. Naruto went over to her and slowly moved the sheet aside. He smiled at her.

"It's okay, Hinata. I'm here." He took her in his arms. She shuddered from embarrassment, shivering, then put her arms around Naruto. Somehow just knowing he was there made it better.

After a few moments, both had calmed down and Naruto got up to retrieve their clothes; he picked up Hinata's clothes first and handed them to her. She dressed slowly, almost reluctant to hide from him again. Then she watched him dress, thinking again how amazing his body felt against hers.

Hinata turned to Naruto. "Naruto?" He turned to her, a questioning look on his face. She came and wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her face to his chest. Naruto wrapped his arms around her. "I love you so much, Naruto."

"I love you too, Hinata. I always will," he said, smiling. The two stood together, wrapped in one another's arms for a few moments. Then Naruto smiled at Hinata. "We should check on Jiraiya. I hit him pretty hard."

The two opened their door and looked out into the hallway. Naruto shook his head and Hinata smiled at how protective Naruto had gotten of her. Jiraiya was embedded in the wall a solid foot and was out cold. The two went over and pulled the old pervert out of the wall and carried him into the room he had shared with Shino. Shino was already up and dressed; the three Gennin sat and waited for Jiraiya to wake up. Naruto and Hinata told Shino what had happened, leaving out their own nudity. Shino seemed impressed by Naruto's strength.

"It would seem you're very protective of Hinata, Naruto," Shino said. Naruto nodded. "This is logical. You are protective of your mate, a very admirable trait." Hinata blushed when Shino called her Naruto's mate, but the young couple both smiled and stepped closer to one another.

As the three were sitting there, Naruto and Hinata holding one another, the door opened again. Naruto got between Hinata and the new arrival. He took up a defensive position as two women stepped in. One had blond hair in two pigtails and a green dot on her forehead. The other was a trim brunette carrying a pig. Naruto thought about what he was looking at a moment and, realizing the blond was Tsunade, he cracked up laughing. Tsunade looked at him. She was shocked at his appearance until she realized he must be Minato's son.

"So you're Naruto, huh? And the young lady behind you must be Hinata." She turned to Shino. "And you're Shino, yes?" Shino nodded. Naruto nodded through his laughter, then fell onto the floor, still laughing. "Okay, Naruto, what is so funny?"

Naruto, still laughing and holding his sides, gasped out, "Your hair is in pigtails, and she's carrying a pig!"

Upon hearing this, Hinata started giggling, and soon enough, Tsunade and Shizune both started laughing too. Before long, all of them except Shino and Jiraiya were rolling on the floor laughing. It took ten minutes before the four could stand and breathe normally again. Once they could, Naruto explained to Tsunade and Shizune why Jiraiya was unconscious, again leaving out his and Hinata's nudity. Tsunade explained to everyone that she had agreed to come back to the village, so their mission was a success. The three Gennin smiled and congratulated one another. Their first mission together, an A-rank at that, was a success. After Jiraiya awoke, the team checked out of the hotel, and the six people and one pig started their trek back to Konoha.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed the fluff/lime herein. I'm not going to discuss the trip home, as it's uneventful. Also, next chapter: Naruto's past will be revealed! Yes, I'm going to finally explain what caused this AU to be so different. Well, I hope you all enjoyed.


	10. Past and Future

Author's Note: FYI, everyone, get used to limes in this story, because there will probably be a lot of them. I'm not saying there will or won't be one in any given chapter, as they take a lot of words sometimes, but they will happen a good bit. No lemons for a while, though. Anyway, enjoy this chapter, wherein Naruto will reveal his past.

Chapter 10

Naruto, Hinata, and Shino had returned to the village after being gone a mere two days. Sarutobi was impressed, to say the least. Upon seeing his old student, Tsunade, he immediately announced his retirement to the village, and Tsunade was sworn in as the Fifth Hokage the next day. That was the official occurrence, but in truth, she would be training to be Hokage for several months, during which time her old sensei, Sarutobi, would remain the acting Hokage except for meetings and so forth, during which he would act as her assistant.

Naruto spent the next several days with his team, getting to know Shino somewhat, introducing Shino to the training routine, bonding even more with both Hinata and Jiraiya, the latter of whom he was coming to see as a father almost, and allowing Shino to join their bond somewhat as well. The four of them trusted one another implicitly now. If Naruto yelled jump, two teens and an old man could be seen clearing the trees seconds later. The same went for the other three, though if Jiraiya was yelling, three teens cleared the trees. This principle applied to anything any one of them might yell or say. Naruto, for the first time in his life, felt truly accepted. He couldn't get rid of the memories, however, of the last time he felt that way, only to have it ripped away from him.

Naruto was spending time alone, away even from Hinata for a while. He had told her he was just going for a walk, which was true, but he was really going out to think and relive those times. It was a torture he subjected himself to a few times a month before he had been with her, and he had bypassed it of late, so he felt he needed to do it today. He was about a mile from the house, where the team's training had been that day, when he found a large boulder. He climbed onto it and sat down. He laid back on the boulder and closed his eyes, letting the memories flood over him.

Flashback

_Naruto walked into the classroom. Today was the day they were going to be assigned to teams. He sat by himself as always. He didn't notice it at the time, but in hindsight he realized a certain young girl was watching him that day, as she always was. Hinata was the only one who seemed pleased that he was there. The rest of the class either didn't care, or would have preferred if he wasn't there. He had been sitting there a little while when the door burst open and Sakura and Ino came in, panting and both claiming to have won the right to sit with Sasuke. He groaned. _"It's always about Sasuke!" _he thought to himself._

_He got up and went over to Sasuke. He was trying to figure this out, so he got onto the desk and glared at the Uchiha boy. He just didn't get it. Naturally, all the girls were scolding him about glaring at Sasuke. He didn't care. He glared at the boy all the harder. What in the hell did they see in the guy? He was cold, harsh, a royal prick. What in the hell did they see in him? He was still glaring at the boy, trying to figure out what the hell they saw in him when someone behind him bumped him._

Flashback End

Naruto chuckled to himself. He'd rather not remember the details of what happened just then. That was the day he first met them, and they were assigned as his team. He nodded, that was when it started. As was typical of this torture, his mind moved on to the next significant event with them.

Flashback

_Naruto was tied to the post. The three of them had failed to get the point of Kakashi's test and had been failed as a result. The other two had been told they could eat, but Naruto himself was tied to the post for trying to eat alone, and the others had been told not to give him any. Sasuke was saying something about Naruto being weak hurting the team. After a short debate, Sakura got up and fed him a bite._

_Kakashi appeared before them, enraged. Both Sasuke and Sakura jumped in his defense. Sakura said, "We gave our lunch to him because the three of us are one!"_

_Naruto would always remember those words. They accepted him. Kakashi grinned and simply stated, "You pass." The three were confused, so he explained that they had seen past his traps and deceptions and gotten the point that they needed to think of the team before themselves, so they had passed. Naruto couldn't really care less about that. His teammates had accepted him, that's all he could think of. Then they all left, forgetting to untie him. He groaned. Figured._

Flashback End

Naruto chuckled as he thought back to that time. In spite of the smile on his face, tears ran from his eyes as he remembered how good it felt to have them accept him. As his mind was getting ready to move on to the memory he always dreaded, when he lost that acceptance, he heard a voice. He turned and found Hinata there with him, on the boulder. She saw the tears on his face. Hinata came to him and wrapped her arms around him.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" she asked. "Please, tell me, why are you crying? What happened to you?"

Naruto held her close. He sighed. She deserved to know what had happened. He turned to her and pulled her down onto his lap, holding her gently. She smiled up at him and ran her fingers through his spiky hair. He smiled. "All right, Hinata, I'll tell you. You deserve to know. After all, since you're with me, you deserve to know what you're getting yourself into," he said, forcing himself to smile for her sake. "You remember when my old team got sent to the Land of Waves, right?" She nodded. "That's where it happened," he said, then he started his story.

Flashback

_Naruto had arrived at the bridge. He saw Haku's ice mirrors. In the middle was Sasuke. He watched as Sasuke seemed to be getting pelted by needles from every direction. He couldn't seem to do anything about it. He felt more helpless than he ever had before. Maybe announcing his presence like that hadn't been such a good idea. _(Hinata giggled at that.) _Naruto stood there, shock setting in, as he watched Sasuke's body begin to resemble a porcupine from all the needles being thrown at him. Naruto felt totally helpless. He couldn't get inside the dome of mirrors, and he could tell Sasuke couldn't get out. Then Sasuke looked straight at him as he sat on his knees in there. Then he closed his eyes and fell forward and didn't move again. Naruto gasped, his eyes filling with tears. True, he and Sasuke had never really gotten along, but still, he didn't want Sasuke to die._

_Naruto felt a sudden rage building up inside him. As his anger rose, he felt himself get stronger. He didn't know it at the time, but there was a red haze of chakra around him. He threw back his head and roared in his combined anger and pain. The red chakra took the form of a fox, two tails growing out of the base of Naruto's spine. He charged forward._

_The next thing anyone knew, Naruto had shattered the mirror nearest to him. Then he was in the middle of the dome. He screamed again, the chakra expanding and shattering the rest of the mirrors. The young shinobi who had been hiding in one of them came at Naruto, who simply grabbed his hand. Naruto could tell the boy was shocked, even with the mask in the way. Naruto roared, "I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!" He could tell his enemy was afraid of him, but he didn't stop. He pulled back and punched the shinobi in the face, pulling him toward the punch at the same time by the arm he grabbed. Naruto was shocked when the shinobi's neck broke from the punch, leaving the young boy dead._

_As he was doing this, he heard a crackling sound followed by a scream (as he found out later, Kakashi had hit Zabuza with his Chidori) then something that sounded like laughing. Naruto, despite his shock, was still enraged. Upon seeing the large group of thugs standing on the end of the incomplete bridge, he didn't think, he just charged. As he ran, he accidentally stepped on Sasuke's leg. He didn't even notice at the time, but the sheer power of the chakra pumping through his body made his step very strong and Sasuke's leg shattered. He kept moving, not even noticing what he'd done. Of course, even if he had, it wouldn't have stopped him, since he thought Sasuke was dead._

_Naruto reached the group of thugs. He started to attack them without thought. He tore one after another apart in his quest to get to the short man in the back, Gato. Some of the mercenaries ran from him and leapt into the water, but many of them still got torn apart by the enraged Naruto. Soon enough, he found his target, and, grinning at the short man's fear, simply used a clawed hand and tore out Gato's throat. He chuckled and threw the body over the end of the bridge, before collapsing to the ground, unconscious._

Flashback End

Naruto's eyes were filled with tears as he told Hinata about what he'd done. She just held him close. Naruto was grateful to her for being there for him. He held her close, desperate to have her near him. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close, letting him cry, letting him get it all out. After a while, Naruto calmed down, feeling much better.

"Thank you, Hinata," he said, looking at her with tears in his eyes. She nodded, waiting for him to calm down and finish his story. "Anyway, when I woke up, I found Sasuke glaring at me. He had just been knocked out, obviously, but both he and Sakura blamed me for hurting him. I'm actually surprised we passed the second exam, considering how bad our teamwork has been ever since. I guess Kakashi told them about the fox while I was knocked out, since they both looked at me with pure hate after that. They only worked with me when they absolutely had to, and neither of them lifted a finger to help me. The only time Sakura helped me was when I was out from the seal, and she was helping Sasuke, too, so I doubt it was anything personal. She just wanted to make sure we passed the exam so that Sasuke wouldn't fail. I know they both hate me now, and honestly, I don't care anymore. That's why the old man said what he did about our team accepting me and that being a big deal because of what happened with my old team. Remember when I said I would tell you why I was so willing to move so fast?" Hinata nodded. "That's why. I don't want to lose you, not now, not ever. That's why I was so afraid to tell you what happened and about the fox. Everyone who has found out about it has rejected me. I was afraid you would, too. I'm really glad you didn't."

Naruto, finished, sighed deeply, remembering everything that had gone wrong in his life. Then he turned and looked at Hinata, the beautiful girl in his arms. He pulled her closer, holding her to him, his hands rubbing her back gently. For her part, Hinata just held him, letting him know she wasn't leaving, that she was there, and that she would always love him. As the two sat there in silence, several hours passed, and soon it was time for them to go home.

That Evening, Naruto's Apartment

Naruto and Hinata arrived home in the early evening, the sun shining a brilliant orange into the small apartment. Naruto always loved this time of day. Hinata grinned when she saw the sun; the color made her think of Naruto's jumpsuits. Hinata turned to Naruto. She knew what he needed tonight.

"Hey, Naruto?" she said. He looked at her, his eyes still full of pain as he remembered the loss of his team. "I'll make us some dinner, so why don't you go get a shower, okay?" she said, giving him a loving smile. He looked at the floor a moment, then nodded. He walked away, into the bathroom and into the shower. Hinata's face fell. She hated to see him like that, but she promised herself she'd do everything she could to help him. She turned and started to make them dinner as she heard the shower turn on.

Naruto showered slowly, letting his muscles relax as the hot water ran over him, letting himself feel a little better. He really did feel somewhat better after having told Hinata about what happened and knowing that she was still his, still here with him. He actually smiled as he thought of her. He loved her so damn much. He finally finished his shower as his muscles were all relaxed and got out. He dressed in his evening clothes and walked out, savoring the smell of cooking food.

"_Her cooking always smells so good,"_ he thought as he dressed. He was glad his girl was such a good cook; she could make something as simple as stew seem like a feast to him. He walked up to her from behind and wrapped his arms around her when she wasn't doing anything that could get her burned. She turned around and hugged him back, then told him to sit down at the table, which he did.

Hinata was surprised when Naruto hugged her, but she just hugged him back. "Have a seat, Naruto. Dinner's almost ready," she said, smiling to herself.

He obviously felt better already just from his shower. She knew he'd spring back fast, he always did, but she didn't expect it to be quite THAT easy. She turned and set the pot on the table, smiling lovingly at him, then got two bowls for them. She sat down across from him, and the young couple served themselves and started eating. Naruto would look at Hinata and smile from time to time, but neither spoke. Hinata noticed he looked a little tense, but decided to wait for him to talk.

Once both had eaten, Naruto made his way to his bed and sat down, not feeling like moving once he had. Hinata giggled at him, then went and got her shower. She came back, wearing her loose-fitting nightgown. She laid down with Naruto, her arms around him and her head leaning against his back gently. Naruto sighed in contentment and put both his hands on both of hers as her hands rested on his chest.

Naruto hadn't planned on talking any more tonight, but somehow having her near made him want to talk. "Hinata?" he said. She made a small sound to let him know she was listening. "Thank you, Hinata. For today, for being with me, for everything. You've done so much for me, and I want you to know I really do appreciate it."

Hinata leaned up and kissed the back of Naruto's neck, making him shiver and groan. She giggled at his reaction and did it again, then answered him. "I haven't done anything I didn't want to do, Naruto. Honestly, I've wanted to be right here, with you, for as long as I can remember," she said, kissing his neck and shoulder as she spoke.

Naruto rolled over and smiled at Hinata. "You're too good for me, Hinata, but thank you for accepting me." She blushed and smiled at him. He leaned down and kissed her, softly at first, then deeper, his love and desire filling his kiss, loving how she made him feel. He ran his hands up and down her back, making her shudder and moan into the kiss a little. After a few minutes of that, Naruto pulled back, breathing hard. "I'm sorry, Hinata, but if we don't stop now, I don't think I'll be able to stop."

Hinata was a little disappointed, but at the same time, she was proud of him for his restraint, and she felt loved and respected that he was saying he wanted her but was going to wait for her. She smiled at him, then kissed him gently one last time. "Thank you, Naruto," she said. "I'm not ready for more just yet, but I do want you to know, you're the only one I want to share my life with, and the only one I want to give my body to." She blushed as she said this, as did Naruto. The young couple wrapped their arms around one another and relaxed in one another's embrace. Sighing in contentment, the two soon fell asleep.

Gaara

Gaara was still in shock. It had been two weeks since he had been soundly defeated in the preliminary match against that weird green-wearing bowl-cut-sporting kid. Rock Lee, wasn't that his name? Yeah, something like that. Not that he cared really, but that kid was the first he had truly wanted to kill who had gotten away. Add to that the last few days he had felt some kind of weird power within the village, and Gaara was getting curious. Someone in this village was a very strong wind-wielder, maybe even stronger than Temari when it came down to it. Gaara hadn't thought much of it at first, but he'd noticed of late the same person seemed to be using every element: earth, fire, wind, water, and lightning. So today he had decided to go on a hunt of sorts and see exactly who or what he would find. He chuckled to himself as he remembered the last hunt he went on; that one ended with that Sound guy, Dosu, as a bloody corpse. What might this one lead to?

Naruto and Hinata

The young couple were training at the training ground near the Namikaze Mansion. Naruto was working on perfecting his Elemental Rasengan, while Hinata was perfecting her Rasengan and working on figuring out ways the spinning of chakra in a Rasengan could be incorporated into her Gentle Fist. She was also trying to use her water affinity in her Gentle Fist and her Rasengan, and she was having a pretty decent amount of success, all things considered.

As the young couple trained, Naruto suddenly got a sense of intense blood lust coming from somewhere nearby. He looked around, wondering what it was he felt. Then he remembered the feeling he'd gotten from that Sand Genin, Gaara, when he was fighting Lee. This feeling was the same. So, Gaara was nearby, huh? That figured. Naruto had noticed that Gaara seemed to be the only one he'd ever met who had anywhere near the level of chakra that Naruto himself had. It made him curious; could Gaara be like him? He decided to call the boy out.

Naruto stepped between where he figured Gaara was and Hinata and spoke, "Come out, you. I know you're there."

Moments later, Hinata saw a young boy, their age she guessed, with the kanji for love on his forehead and a gourd on his back, stepping out of a bush on the edge of the clearing they were using to train. Naruto seemed to have known about him being there, so she didn't worry too much. She refrained from practicing while this boy was near, however. She stayed behind Naruto and waited to see what would happen.

Gaara stared at Naruto. "You're like me. Who are you?" he said.

Naruto smirked. "I had the feeling we were the same. Who is it?"

"Shukaku, a sand spirit, the ghost of a monk who was sealed in a jar of tea years ago. My father sealed him into me before I was even born. As a result, I destroyed my mother's life by entering the world. As I was born from death, now my purpose is death. I will end all other existences than my own in order to prove my own existence," Gaara said. His voice was low and deep, but there was an insane undercurrent of pain in every word he spoke. "Who are you?"

"I am Naruto Uzumaki. If you mean who I hold, I hold the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox. It was sealed into me when I was born. That's all I know. My purpose is to protect those precious to me, and so help me, if you come after them, I WILL end you," Naruto said, his voice getting lower, darker near the end.

Gaara looked shocked. This existence, this presence, this power was greater than his own. It had come from nowhere just then, and he knew if he were to try to attack this boy, he would die. He didn't even know how he knew, but he knew in an instant that this boy could destroy him utterly in a single move. Gaara watched closely, yet Naruto was able to get around behind him. Gaara turned and saw the blond standing there. He heard something and looked down. Naruto was holding a white ball of pure chakra inches from Gaara's stomach.

Naruto chuckled. "My water chakra would destroy your sand armor, my fire chakra would burn you, my lightning chakra would shock you, my wind chakra would cut you, and my earth chakra would grind you to dust. Oh, and the non-elemental chakra that is the base of this sphere would simply tear you to pieces. I could have easily killed you just now," Naruto told the stunned Gaara.

Gaara stared not only at the jutsu before him, but the boy holding it. "How are you so strong? What drives you? And why would you use this power for anyone but yourself?" he asked. He was actually partly curious, but mostly he wanted to know what it was that made this boy so much stronger than himself.

Naruto pointed at Hinata. "See her?" he asked. Gaara nodded. "She is the one I would use it for the most. She saved me from my darkness, from myself. She accepted me when no one else did. When all others hated me, she loved me. When all others rejected me, she clung to me. She brought me from the darkness and into the light, and I love her more than life itself."

Gaara was stunned. "Love?" he said. "Is that what makes you so strong? You become strong because you desire to protect someone precious to you?" He was fighting hard to not go into shock at this thought.

Naruto nodded. "Gaara, I know how hard it is, to have no one. But you're not alone now. We may not be friends, at least not yet, but you and I are alike. We are both Jinchuuriki, and now you have me. I accept you, I won't hate you, and I won't try to attack you."

Gaara felt like something in his mind shattered. His beliefs, his thoughts no longer held true. He wasn't alone! There was one like him! He looked at Naruto, thinking hard. He eventually held out a hand to Naruto.

Naruto was momentarily confused, then took Gaara's hand and shook it. Gaara looked stunned. In truth, he was far beyond stunned. This boy had, in mere minutes, using words and a single move, changed everything he believed. Naruto favored Gaara with a true smile, then took his hand back. "Oh, and Gaara, just so you know, I would fight just as hard to protect anyone in this village as I would to protect Hinata here. One day, I will be the Hokage and protect this whole village, because every single person in this village will be precious to me, no matter what they think of me. Find your precious person, Gaara, and put your life into protecting them. Then you will find true strength," Naruto said, having no idea how huge an impact his words were having on Gaara.

"How do I find my precious person, Naruto Uzumaki?" Gaara asked.

Naruto thought about that a moment, then said, "Just Naruto, please. And to find your precious person, or people, find those to whom you are precious. Those should be the ones you protect and fight for and love. That's how I found Hinata here. She was the only one to care for me. You remember, she called to me in the preliminaries. That's where I found her."

Gaara nodded. "I see. Thank you, Naruto. I hope we may become friends. Now I must go and think upon who my precious people are," he said, then bowed and left.

Naruto chuckled once the boy was gone. "We will be friends, Gaara, I just know it," he said softly. Once Gaara had been gone a few minutes, he turned back to Hinata, and the two got back to their training.

That Evening

Naruto was satisfied about this day. Between what had happened with Gaara and the training he and Hinata had done, it was a good day. Naruto had totally mastered the Elemental Rasengan, as he had dubbed it. Hinata had mastered her Water Style version of the chakra sphere. The young couple had tested putting Naruto's Fire Style Rasengan up against Hinata's Water Style one, and Hinata's had won easily; it was lucky for both of them they had been standing still when they touched them. If not, Hinata's Water Style Rasengan would likely have hit Naruto's hand, and that would have been disastrous at best.

Hinata, for her part, felt very pleased. Not only had she mastered her Water Style Rasengan and spent some very good time with Naruto, she had also seen for the first time just how Naruto was able to change people in mere seconds. She had been shocked at how easy it had been for him to get through to Gaara. But, really, deep in her heart, she was proud of her fiancé. She was more in love now than she'd ever been before, she knew. As the two entered their apartment together, she stopped a moment and kissed him as she closed the door. Naruto locked the door, then went to make dinner for them.

Gaara

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the young couple, the red-haired boy entered the rooms he and his siblings were sharing in one of Konoha's hotels. He looked at his two siblings, wondering what they felt about him. If they felt anything beyond fear, he knew they could easily be his precious people. He chuckled at himself, realizing he'd never even considered that as possible before, yet when he thought about it, he realized they were always there, and they trained to be able to fight with him. He'd have to talk to them tonight, feel them out, and see what was going on.

Upon his approach, Temari and Kankuro tensed somewhat, which made him sad, but he knew why. After all, he was something of a homicidal maniac prior to this. He'd have to talk to them and figure this out. "Temari, Kankuro, I need to speak to you," he said softly. They both nodded. "Am I precious to you?" he asked them.

Temari was shocked. "Of course you're precious to us, Gaara. You're our little brother," she said. Kankuro nodded his assent.

Gaara thought about that a moment, then decided he had nothing to lose. "Do you...love me?" he asked them both. Both seemed stunned at hearing this, but eventually both nodded again.

"Like I said, Gaara, you're our brother. Now what's this all about?" Temari asked.

Gaara decided not to tell them exactly what had happened, but to feel them out a bit more. "I could have died today," he said. Both Temari and Kankuro looked both shocked and scared. "I see from your face you know the level of power that would take. But believe me when I say my life was in the hands of another and he gave it back to me. I see you are afraid of this power. I do not fear it, but I do fear for us if we go through with this plan." He spoke, as his siblings knew, of the plan to invade the Leaf Village. Of course, the order had come from their father, the Kazekage, but without Gaara, the plan would fail, there was no question of that. "In fact, I believe the Kazekage is no longer himself. He has betrayed the best interests of our village. Now, if you two are with me, we can take our knowledge of this to the Hokage and offer our aid. We must break our alliance with the Sound." Temari and Kankuro looked at one another. They sure as HELL weren't expecting this, but if Gaara was going to go against the plan, they'd follow him. Not only was he their brother, but if he was against them, they knew they would die, never mind if there was one stronger than him against them. They looked at their brother and nodded, signifying they would follow him.

Tsunade

It was evening, Tsunade was finishing up her duties for the day. Sarutobi had left her to the paperwork while he went home for the night. She chuckled; even though she knew this was training for her new position, that didn't mean she had to like it.

She was just finishing up her last stack of papers when she heard a knock at the door. "Come in," she spoke just loud enough for those outside to hear her.

Tsunade got a hell of a shock when she looked up and saw the three Sand Genin in front of her. She set down her stamp and her pen and looked at the three youth in front of her. "What can I do for you?" she asked.

The redhead, Gaara she thought his name was, responded. "It is not what you can do for us, Lady Hokage. I have information that will have very dire consequences for the Leaf Village. I have come here, along with my siblings, to warn you that the Sand and Sound Villages plan to betray and invade the Leaf Village during the Chuunin Exam Finals."


	11. Final Training

Chapter 11

Tsunade was stunned, to say the very least. This boy, Gaara, had shown up out of nowhere just now, and was telling her that their ally, the Sand, had an alliance with the Sound village, and the two were planning to betray the Leaf village during the Chunin Exam Finals. But wait...

"How can I trust this information?" she asked, her suspicion aroused. "After all, what better way to further this plan than for you three to gain my trust, if the plan in fact exists, and then have you three betray that trust?" Tsunade knew that would be a little ridiculous, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

Temari sighed. "If we were going to continue with the plan, I assure you we wouldn't be here. In point of fact, we are the children of the Kazekage, that's how we know of this plan, as well as playing key roles in it. Specifically Gaara here." As she spoke, she indicated her youngest sibling.

Tsunade linked the fingers of her hands together and rested her chin on them. "All right, you made your point. Now, you are going against your own village in doing this. Why?" she asked, looking the three before her over carefully.

Gaara stepped forward a little. "I spoke with one of your ninja," he said. "His name is Naruto Uzumaki. He is like me, a Jinchuuriki. I know he is more powerful than I, and he could have killed me, but he allowed me to live. I intend to repay his mercy, for one thing. For another, I have come to the conclusion that our father, the Kazekage, is no longer acting in the best interests of our village. As such, we intend to see to it that our alliance with the Sound is ended, and do what we can to help you."

Tsunade didn't need much skill at reading people to know Gaara spoke the truth. She surmised that Gaara's talk with Naruto had something to do with changing the boy, who she knew was utterly merciless before. She sighed again; this was quite a problem. "All right, you three," she said to them. "As Hokage, I will accept your aid and any information you can give me will help. However, what is it you want in return?"

Gaara gave a small smile. "I would like to make a selfish request, Lady Hokage," he said. Tsunade raised one eyebrow to let him know to continue. "Once this fiasco is concluded, I would like to hire Naruto and his team for an extended period of time, probably close to a year, to advise me in setting up a new council and so on in Suna."

Tsunade wasn't expecting that. "You believe you will be named Kazekage?" she asked the boy.

Gaara sighed. "There is no one in my village more powerful than myself. Also, no one would dare challenge me. As such, there is no one else to take the position besides me," he said, his voice filled with pride and dread simultaneously. "I would, of course, pay the team for their services."

"All right," Tsunade answered, still not totally sure where that request had come from, but glad it wasn't something worse. "Anything else you may want?" she asked. The three shook their heads. "All right then. Now, what can you tell me?"

Naruto

As Tsunade was being briefed on the Sand and Sound's plans, Naruto was waking up. He found himself enfolded in Hinata's arms; she seemed to be holding him a bit closer than normal. Not that he minded, of course. He rubbed her back softly as he laid there in her arms, careful not to wake her. He had been doing this for about ten minutes when the indigo-haired beauty in his arms stirred.

"N-Naruto?" she asked, stuttering slightly in her half-awake state.

"I'm here, Hinata," he answered her. He chuckled as she rubbed her eyes, waking up slowly.

"W-Where am I?" she asked. Naruto slowly realized what was happening. Or so he thought, anyway.

"You're at home, Hinata. Where else would you be?" he told her, thinking that would bring her out of whatever had her so befuddled.

Hinata looked around, looked at Naruto, saw he was in his pajamas, noticed it was his room she was in, blushed deeply, then did something she hadn't done in a week or more now. She fainted.

Naruto couldn't help it. Her face as she looked around, all confused like that, was simply adorable. Then her fainting like that. It was just too cute. He burst out laughing. By the time Hinata awoke five minutes later, he was holding his sides and laughing so hard he was crying.

"N-Naruto, w-what is s-so f-funny?" Hinata asked, wondering if her crush had totally lost it.

Naruto, hearing the worry in her voice, looked at Hinata, wondering what was wrong. "What do you mean, Hinata? You're joking, right? I mean, you've been here for some time now, I don't know where else you think you would be," he said, his voice worried.

"I should be at home, Naruto! What in the world do you mean I've been here for some time now?" she burst out, becoming rather sure now that Naruto had totally lost it.

Naruto finally realized what was going on, or at least somewhat. "What's the last thing you remember, Hinata?" he asked her.

"I remember the day before the second stage of the Chunin Exams. We need to get to the Forty-fourth Training Ground, don't we?" she said.

Naruto chuckled. "Hinata, look at your left hand," he told her.

Hinata did as she was told, and she saw a ring on her left ring finger. It dawned on her; everything, that "dream" she'd been having all night, wasn't a dream at all. It was real! She fainted again.

Naruto chuckled at her antics, then pulled her close and held her to him, kissing her head gently, lovingly as he did. He looked over at his calender, reminding himself that the finals were just days away now. He sighed, hoping things would go all right.

After Hinata woke up again, she remembered that her assumed "dream" had been no such thing, but real events, and she was back to herself. Her stuttering and fainting had passed. Naruto smiled at her; she blushed, but smiled back.

About an hour later, the young couple had gotten ready for their day and left their apartment. They went immediately to the training field they always used. Naruto almost immediately began forming his Wind Style Rasengan. He was trying now to do something more with it. He wanted to be able to throw the Rasengan. He could throw the Rasenshuriken, yes, but that took longer time and more chakra to form, so he was trying to learn to throw the normal Rasengan.

It took him about an hour, but after trying dozens of times, he had figured out what the problem was: he couldn't keep a steady flow of chakra in the sphere when it left his hand. The issue was that he had no idea how to fix that.

Hinata, meanwhile, was practicing her Sixty-Four Palms. She had it pretty much mastered, now all she had to do was master the next step, the One-Hundred-Twenty-Eight Palms. She doubted she could get it ready anywhere near in time for the Finals, but still, the more progress she made now, the better. By the time Naruto had given up on throwing the Rasengan for the time being, Hinata had worn herself out; she was almost out of chakra. Naruto, of course, still had tons of chakra, but he sat down with Hinata when she took her break.

"What are you working on over there, Naruto?" she asked him.

"I'm trying to learn to throw the Rasengan. I just can't keep a steady flow of chakra in it once I throw it," he explained. "And there's not much I can do about it, either." He shrugged. "Not that it matters, really. I mean, I'm pretty good at getting in close to hit people with it if I need to, so I don't really need to throw it." He laughed at himself at that. "I just think it'd be cool, that's all."

Hinata giggled. "It would be cool. Shouldn't you be working on getting ready for the Finals, though?" she asked, a little worried.

Naruto raised one eyebrow at her. "Hinata, do you really think I need to train for that?"

She thought about that a moment. He did have a point. "Well, no, I guess not."

He smiled at her. He leaned down and kissed her gently, which she was more than happy to return. Pulling back, Naruto looked at Hinata, wondering what he'd done to deserve such a wonderful girl. He shook his head at himself, telling himself it didn't matter, he was just happy she was his.

Tsunade

A few hours later, Tsunade sent out ANBU to gather everyone who would be participating in the Chunin Exam Finals, as well as all their senseis. She had been briefed on the details of the plans for the invasion, and now she needed her ninja. She also sent one ANBU to retrieve Sarutobi; she felt she'd need him as well. Within minutes, her office was filled to capacity. Naruto, Hinata, Gaara, Lee, Shikamaru, Temari, Kankuro, Shino, and Sasuke were in the room, most of them looking confused. Jiraiya, Guy, Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai had come in moments after their students. The Sand siblings, naturally, bore looks of determination rather than confusion, but the others all looked lost, wondering why they were there. After a few moments, Sarutobi entered the room, and Tsunade called the meeting to order.

"All right, everyone, we have a situation here," Tsunade said. "I've been told by Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro here that we are going to be betrayed. Their village has made an alliance with the Sound village, and they intend to attack us during the Chunin Exam Finals."

As she expected, everyone in the room except the Sand siblings, Naruto, Hinata, and Shino yelled out, "WHAT?" She was a little surprised Naruto and Hinata didn't react, but didn't say anything about it.

"You heard me," she said, giving them all a glare to let them know to shut up and listen. They did. "Now, since we have this information, we can plan accordingly. And from what they've told me, I believe the leader of the Sound village to be Orochimaru. So we must plan for that as well."

Shikamaru stepped forward, surprising everyone except Asuma, who knew the boy to be a genius. "Please, Lady Hokage, allow me," he said. Everyone began to listen to him. "First, I need to know who will be available for this operation."

Shikamaru talked long into the night that night. By the time everyone went home, it was well after dawn, but they had a solid, workable plan in place, and everyone knew their part in it. They only had two days left before the Finals started, and they needed rest.

So, the group went their separate ways and rested for the following two days. Hinata went to the Hyuga compound the day before the Finals and spoke to Hiashi about his part in their plan. He agreed to do what was required of him.

Shikamaru spoke to his father about his part; he agreed and spent the final day with his team, going over the plan with them and fulfilling their tradition of drinking together the night before a battle. Lee and Guy trained a little bit, but for them, they did next to nothing.

Asuma sharpened his chakra knives, making sure they'd be ready for the battle. Jiraiya spent his day peeping on the bathhouse, as usual, while Kurenai walked around the village, simply savoring the sights and sounds she had taken for granted for so long. Kakashi read as much as he could of his copy of Make-Out Paradise.

All too soon for any of their likings, the Finals had come. They were ready, yes, but not a single Konoha ninja was looking forward to the battle they knew was to come that day. Most of them outright dreaded it, while a very few were resigned to it, but none were looking forward to it.

Nevertheless, all good things must come to an end, and they all knew they would see the end of their days of peace on this day. All of the finalists filed into the Chunin Exam Stadium; they were all rather subdued. The proctor for the Finals showed the eight participants a bracket showing who each one would be fighting. The first match was Naruto vs. Sasuke.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, stay here. The rest of you, head up to the stands and wait your turn," he said. Naruto and Sasuke stood in front of one another, Naruto's eyes flashing with excitement at being able to battle Sasuke at long last. Sasuke's eyes showed hatred for the blond in front of him. The proctor stood between the two. He said a single sentence. Everyone who knew what was going on felt his statement was the sealing of their fate. He said, "Let the Final Tournament of the Chunin Exams...BEGIN!"

Author Note: This chapter was just too much of a pain to write, so I kept it short. The next chapter will cover the first round battles of the Finals, so it will probably be pretty long to make up for this one being so short. Sorry, and I hope you enjoyed it anyway.


	12. When One Thing Ends

A/N: The hiatus is OVER! Here's:

Chapter 12

Naruto and Sasuke glared at one another for a few moments after the proctor called for the match to begin. Surprising most of the spectators, it was Sasuke who moved first. He rushed at Naruto, leading with his fist. Naruto ducked backwards, easily dodging the Uchiha's move, and swiped at his legs with a low sweeping kick. The Uchiha leapt over Naruto's attack and attempted to punch down at Naruto's head. Naruto rolled slightly and kicked up at Sasuke's midsection at the same time.

Naruto's kick drove into Sasuke's stomach hard, knocking the wind from the dark-haired boy. Sasuke backed away, panting heavily, arms gripping his stomach hard. Naruto pressed his advantage and punched Sasuke across the face, sending him flying into the wall of the arena. Sasuke pulled himself out of the wall and ran at Naruto again, rage clear on his face. Naruto waited in his ready stance. Sasuke threw an angry punch at Naruto, leaving himself wide open. Naruto saw this, but didn't take it too seriously and let the opening go, not bothering to attack Sasuke. Sasuke saw this and snarled.

His rage increased by the way Naruto was clearly not taking this fight seriously, he rushed at the blond again, intending to force him to take it so. As Sasuke got close and attacked, Naruto said quietly as he dodged, "Don't take this so seriously, Sasuke! Remember the plan!" Naruto wrapped a hand around Sasuke's wrist as he said this.

Sasuke yanked his arm, pulling Naruto around in front of him and decked him once across the face, hard. "This is deadly serious to me," Sasuke told the blond. "Even if it means every single person in this village dies, I will defeat you!" This enraged Naruto, who kicked as hard as he could from his awkward angle. Sasuke, not expecting Naruto to attack from a position like that, took the full brunt of Naruto's attack, which landed right between his legs. Every male in the stands gripped their own crotch in sympathy. "That was just dirty! Just what I'd expect of a jinchuriki!" Sasuke yelled at Naruto when he could breathe again.

Naruto smirked, intentionally ignoring Sasuke's insult. "Come on, Sasuke, you know better than that. We're ninja, not samurai!" he told him, then went on the attack himself. Sasuke dodged Naruto's punch and leapt away from the blond and up the wall behind him. Naruto watched in horrified fascination as Sasuke built up chakra in the palm of his hand. _"No, he can't be...he wouldn't use that here, would he?"_ Naruto thought to himself. Sure enough, as Naruto watched, Sasuke formed a blade of lightning in his palm. The Chidori! Naruto turned to the proctor and said, quietly, "If he uses that on me, I will not be held responsible for what happens to him." The proctor simply nodded as Sasuke began his charge. Naruto sighed. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to use this," he said softly, then held out a hand and formed an Elemental Rasengan.

Just as Sasuke was coming within range to strike at Naruto with his Chidori, the blond held up his hand to meet the chakra blade with the spinning sphere he'd formed. The two jutsu clashed, chakra flying everywhere for a few moments. Then, the wind chakra in Naruto's Elemental Rasengan canceled the lightning chakra in Sasuke's Chidori, causing it to fail. Sasuke's momentum carried him forward, despite the loss of his own jutsu. Naruto's attack proceeded to tear into Sasuke's hand, then his arm, and eventually stopped when Sasuke's momentum ran out; by then, the Elemental Rasengan was buried in Sasuke's chest. It had turned the Uchiha boy's heart into a boiling liquid. The Uchiha was dead before he hit the ground.

The proctor nearly gagged when he saw the wreckage that was Sasuke Uchiha's body. Naruto scoffed and commented, "He threatened my precious people."

The proctor had no choice. "Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!" he said. Naruto didn't waste time bowing to the crowd. Most of them were shocked into silence anyway. Naruto simply walked away, leaving the proctor and Sasuke's body on the ground of the arena. The proctor then pulled out his copy of the tournament bracket. "Round Two: Shikamaru Nara versus Kankuro! Will you two come down here, please?"

Meanwhile, in the Kage box, Tsunade was speaking to the Kazekage. By now, she suspected that this man was not who he seemed. In fact, she suspected that he was, in fact, Orochimaru in disguise, based on the information she'd been given by Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari.

"That was an...unexpected outcome," the man said, his voice sending slight chills up Tsunade's spine. At that moment, she became certain that her old teammate was sitting beside her.

"It was only unexpected if you don't know those two," Tsunade said back. "Naruto and Sasuke had a lot of bad blood between them. Sasuke reminded me of an old teammate of mine, given how arrogant he was and how little real emotion he seemed to feel." As she spoke, she watched the man beside her carefully for any sign that her ploy had been noticed. He gave none.

"Even so, it's a bit of a disappointment to see so promising a Genin die in such a way, is it not?" Orochimaru, for that is who was with Tsunade, asked in response. Tsunade looked at him in confusion. "Well, really, the boy learned a jutsu created by the Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake, at such a young age," he continued. "That shows quite a bit of promise." As the two Sannin spoke, Shikamaru trapped Kankuro in his Shadow Possession Jutsu.

"You speak truth, I suppose, but sometimes I wonder if a person's abilities might not be made worthless by being wielded by that person," Tsunade said, barely restraining herself from glaring at her old teammate.

Orochimaru chuckled. "Nonsense, no matter who wields a jutsu, the move itself is still valuable for its own sake," he said then. "By the way, what was the move that the Uzumaki kid used on the Uchiha at the end there? I've never seen it before."

Tsunade gave a slight shrug as, on the ground, Shikamaru forfeited the match between him and Kankuro. He had spent a few minutes toying with Kankuro once he caught him in his shadow, only to find that the puppet-master's _puppet_ was still free, and the master could still control it. As a result, Shikamaru had been unable to defeat Kankuro, so he forfeited the match. Nonetheless, the two had both exhibited high levels of skill during the match. "I'm not entirely sure what that jutsu was," she said honestly. "This is the first time I've ever seen it myself."

In the waiting area, Naruto and Hinata were talking quietly about the match they had just witnessed. "Remember, Naruto, you have to beat Kankuro for our plan to work," Hinata said.

Naruto nodded. "Don't worry, Hinata. I won't let him win. I'm sure it'll be a fun match," he said back. Hinata looked worried, so Naruto hugged her briefly. She buried her face in his chest, smiling, and hugged him back, enjoying the scent of his body all around her.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," the proctor commented to Shikamaru.

"Yeah, well, I had the next couple hundred moves planned out in my head, but what good would it do me if I ran myself out of chakra?" he responded rhetorically. He yawned. "This is a huge drag anyway, so let's just forget about it." With that, the lazy boy made his way out of the arena and back up to the waiting area.

"A logical choice," Shino commented as the shadow-user arrived. Shikamaru just nodded before slumping to the ground, falling asleep almost immediately. No one had even bothered to mention Naruto's fight or his rather...brutal way of ending it.

The next fight was called, and it was Hinata versus Shino. Hinata hugged Naruto tightly. Naruto directed a glare at Shino, who nodded in return, promising silently that he wouldn't hurt Hinata; both Naruto and Hinata knew Shino would give it his all, but Naruto was satisfied so long as Hinata wasn't permanently injured.

Shino and Hinata made their way to the ground of the arena. "It would be illogical," Shino commented on their way down, "for me to drain you of all your chakra. You have two more fights to take part in. However, I must display my own skills as well."

Hinata nodded, her eyes thoughtful. "I know how you feel, Shino," she said back. "I'm somewhat torn as well. I would not wish to harm your colony, but most of my moves would do so, and, as you said, we must both display our skills."

As they talked, they had arrived at the ground floor in front of the proctor. He nodded as they took up their battle stances. "Let the third match of the Chunin Exams...BEGIN!" he called out and moved out of their way.

Hinata didn't hesitate, she moved in and began to try to strike at Shino with her Gentle Fist. Shino deflected her strikes carefully; the two had trained together for months by now, after all, so Shino was fully well aware of what Hinata's taijutsu could do. The two had been dueling for several minutes when Hinata realized that Shino hadn't released his bugs yet. She stopped and fell out of her ready stance. Shino raised an eyebrow.

"We cannot fully display our powers if you are holding your insects back, Shino," Hinata said, her voice disappointed.

Shino nodded, acknowledging her point. "We also cannot display our powers if you do not activate your Byakugan," he countered. Hinata gave a nod, then smiled and activated her dojutsu. Shino nodded in return and held out his arms, insects pouring from his sleeves.

For the second time in as many minutes, Hinata charged at Shino. Her Byakugan allowed her to see every minuscule movement Shino made, making predicting what he was going to do much easier. As Shino once again deflected Hinata's moves, he also sent his insects around to try to attach to Hinata's body. Hinata, however, was aware of them; she might not be able to see each insect, but she could easily see the swarm that was buzzing around her.

Hinata gave a smirk and moved in on Shino again. She struck fast and hard, shutting down one chakra point after another. When she was finished, she expected her old teammate and friend to fall to the ground. Instead, he dissolved into a mass of insects! "What!" Hinata cried. She'd been attacking a bug clone all along? Then...where was the real Shino?

Hinata had deactivated her Byakugan when he thought the match was over, which turned out to be a mistake as the real Shino, who had been hiding among his swarm, came from behind and kicked her in the back. Hinata pitched forward, then used the momentum of Shino's attack to roll back to her feet. By the time she regained her feet, Hinata's Byakugan was active again. "So, you hid in your swarm while I attacked your bug clone, then attacked from behind when I dropped my guard. Smart," she said to her teammate.

Shino nodded, admitting that she'd figured out what he'd done. "I doubt it will work again, however," he said idly. "It would be illogical to expect you to fall for the same trick twice."

Hinata smirked. "Indeed it would, my friend." With that, she moved again to attack Shino. This time, it was the real Shino, and he desperately deflected her Gentle Fist strikes to prevent losing control of his chakra. Shino ducked under a wide kick Hinata threw at him, then he managed to push off the ground with one hand and kick at Hinata's midsection at the same time. His blow landed, but it cost him. Hinata shut down the chakra points in his leg.

Shino hopped around, trying to get some feeling back in his leg, but to no avail. Hinata used the time to catch her breath. Shino turned his dark gaze upon Hinata. In an attempt to catch the girl off-guard, he ran at her. Engaging Hinata in taijutsu was a reckless move and he knew it, but he thought it might be worth a try. Hinata saw him coming and, using her superior speed and flexibility, dodged Shino's moves with aplomb. "Nice try, Shino," she commented at one point, when she was doing the splits on the ground after ducking under one of Shino's punches, which had carried him past her. "But not good enough." Rising to her feet, she made to seal the chakra point in one of Shino's shoulders, but, to her surprise, Shino preempted her by swinging with his other arm and backhanding her across the face. Hinata flew a few feet and landed hard on the ground. Wiping blood from her mouth, she rose to her feet and grinned at the bug-user. "Okay, that was good," she granted.

Shino grinned. "I've told you many times, Hinata, that you should never underestimate your opponent, no matter how weak they may seem," he told her. Hinata nodded.

"Indeed you have," she answered. "I will not be making that mistake again." With that, the Hyuga girl moved again, this time in a diving kick that would have swept Shino's feet from under him. Shino carefully calculated the risk, then jumped to avoid the kick; he would have been unable to fight had he lost both his legs. Hinata rose quickly and, as he was coming down, hit his right shoulder, effectively numbing his dominant hand.

Shino nodded to Hinata, who dropped out of her ready stance. "Proctor," Shino said in his normal monotone. "I withdraw."

The proctor grinned around the senbon needle in his mouth and called the match. "Winner, Hinata Hyuga!" he said. The crow cheered.

Despite the relative brevity of the match, especially compared to Shikamaru's time-wasting tactics, it had been a fun one to watch. Hinata bowed, then she and Shino made their way back to the waiting area to rejoin their friends. As they walked, Hinata unsealed Shino's chakra points.

"That was an awesome match, you two!" Naruto said enthusiastically as the two returned to the balcony.

"Yes, most invigorating!" Lee yelled out. Temari and Lee, knowing they would be the opponents for the next match, made their individual ways to the ground. Temari rode her fan down, using the wind to support herself, and Lee simply leapt to the ground, landing hard due to the weights he had strapped on his arms and legs again.

The proctor started the fourth and final match of the first round. Lee and Temari faced off, both excited, both nervous. Temari was worried; this was the boy who had beaten Gaara! Lee was excited and nervous; this girl had brutally defeated Tenten, but she no longer looked the same as she had then. Then, she had had the look of a killer, now she had the look of an honorable opponent. Lee couldn't wait to fight her! "Let us make this a most glorious match!" he called to the blond kunoichi.

Temari gave a small smile. "Yes, I think that is a good idea," she said, pulling out her fan with all three "moons" showing. Temari swung her fan. "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" she cried, sending a gust of cutting wind at Lee. Lee moved, dodging to the side. Temari's jutsu slammed into a tree and tore it apart. Lee grinned; this girl wasn't messing around!

Lee decided it was time for him to attack this time. He circled Temari in an ever-tightening circle, kicking up dust as he went to obscure her view. Temari sighed, rolled her eyes, and swung her fan again. This time, rather than doing a jutsu, she just blew away the dust Lee had produced.

Lee snarled, frustrated, then made a second attempt at getting closer to Temari. She could see him coming, sort of, but Lee was moving so fast Temari couldn't do much about it. Lee swung, his fist crashing hard into Temari's face and sending her flying. She made a matching imprint next to Sasuke's from earlier. The way the shapes lined up, it looked like the two had been holding hands when they slammed into the wall. Naruto, noticing this up in the balcony, snickered.

By the time Temari pulled herself out of the wall, Lee was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, what looked like a rock came hurtling out of one of the trees, straight at her. Temari swung her fan. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't a rock, it was one of Lee's leg weights! Tearing through the wind like it wasn't there, the weight slammed into Temari's fan, tearing a huge hole in it and slamming into the ground beside the kunoichi.

Lee threw his other weight, which flew just over Temari's head and slammed into the ground near the first one. Temari jumped and looked behind her at the two weights. Just as she did, Lee came from behind and kicked her into the air. Jumping quickly, he got above her, planted both feet on her back, and shoved her back toward the ground. Temari slammed into the ground, face-first, and didn't move again. Lee flipped over once, then landed on all-fours not far from Temari. The proctor checked on Temari, then called out, "Winner, Rock Lee!"

Temari groaned and rolled over, leaving a shallow imprint of her body in the ground. Lee came over to her and looked into her eyes. "You should not have insulted my teammate," he said simply, then held out a hand to the girl. Temari accepted it, Lee hefted her to her feet, and the two departed the arena floor, making their way back to the balcony.

Tsunade stood and walked to the front of the Kage box. "Would the four contestants who will be proceeding to the second round please return to the arena floor!" she called out. Naruto, Hinata, Lee, and Kankuro made their way back down. "I am proud of you four! Now, we will have a brief break to allow our contestants to rest. Feel free to move about the stadium, but we ask that no one leave the premises until the other two rounds are complete! We will reconvene in half an hour!"

That said, the spectators rose and began milling about the stadium, while the four remaining contestants took a much-needed break. This would be one of their last moments of peace until after the invasion, and they all knew it. The ominous feeling in the air made each of them savor these few moments of peace. Hopefully, the battle to come could be ended before it really got going.

A/N: Hope you all liked that one. As promised, it's longer than chapter 11. I'm going to be focusing on this fic for the next little while, so hopefully it'll be _done_ by Valentine's Day! Yeah, that's right, we're that close to this fic being complete! Thanks to all of you who have stuck with it this long!


	13. Another Begins

Chapter 13

The half hour break between rounds had passed relatively peacefully. Murmurs could be heard around the stadium about Sasuke's declaration to Naruto during their brief battle. Not a single person, spectator, judge, or otherwise, was taking up Sasuke's cause. The Uchiha had as much as declared he hoped his own village was destroyed, or, at the very least, that he flat-out didn't care what happened to it!

As everyone geared up for the second round, Naruto and Kankuro were tense, expectant. Kankuro had been told that his second-round match would now signal the beginning of the invasion, since Gaara had been eliminated. Orochimaru, who had spent the half hour since the first round ended walking through the stands and speaking to some of the spectators seemingly at random, never noticed the sand that was now surrounding three sides of his seat when he returned to his place in the Kage box. Even if he had noticed it, he would have perceived it as no threat; there was no chakra in the sand, and, besides, Gaara was on his side.

Naruto and Kankuro were called and made their way to the bottom of the arena. The two faced off, Kankuro with his puppet out and Naruto in his ready stance. When the proctor began the match, Naruto moved. Kankuro's puppet moved to get in his way. Naruto simply backhanded it out of his way. Kankuro, surprised at how easily the blond had brushed off Crow, wasn't ready for Naruto's punch, so he took it square on the jaw. Kankuro flew a few feet and rolled to a stop. Naruto chuckled; that was almost _too_ easy!

As it turned out, it _was_ too easy. Naruto suddenly found himself airborne as a harsh uppercut came from literally below his feet. One of Kankuro's puppet's arms had been separated from the rest of the puppet, hidden in the ground, and had flown up when Naruto's guard was down and hit him square on the chin. Naruto used the momentum of the attack to flip and land in a crouch rather than on his back or head. Rubbing his jaw, he grinned at the dark-haired boy. "Good move, Kankuro," he said. "But it won't be working again!"

Kankuro just grinned and twitched his hands as he regained his feet. Crow's limbs all detached, along with his head, and each extremity grew a blade from where it had been joined to the puppet's torso. Kankuro sent these five blades flying at his blond opponent at insane speeds. Naruto was barely able to dodge them all. The head, which impaled the ground, seemed to be glaring up at Naruto. Naruto chuckled and picked it up. Tossing it into the air once, he punched it hard when it came down, sending it flying toward the puppet-master.

Kankuro managed to regain control of Crow's head seconds before the blade coming from it impaled his throat. Naruto grinned as he formed a slew of Shadow Clones. "You might have been able to hit one of me," one said. "But how about all of us?" another asked. Kankuro grinned. This was going to be fun!

Crow flew through the air, throwing pellets at the crowd of blond clones. The pellets each exploded into dark smoke. Kankuro wasn't using poison here, but he wasn't above using smoke to hide. He leapt into the trees near one wall of the arena and had Crow begin to thin the ranks of Naruto's clones.

Naruto chuckled as he felt his clones dispelling; one had happened to see Kankuro moving into the trees. Naruto made a slew more to replenish the numbers, then slipped into the trees himself. As Crow flew, hitting here, stabbing there, impaling next, the real Naruto hid himself among the trees where Kankuro was hiding already. The blond quietly formed a Rasengan in one hand. When he felt the last of his clones dispel, he moved.

Naruto charged at the tree where Kankuro had hidden himself. "Rasengan!" he called as he plowed it into the tree, which was reduced to splinters. Kankuro was barely able to jump out of the tree and land back in the middle of the arena. He hated to admit it, but he was impressed Naruto had found him so easily. He was beginning to believe this boy really could have killed Gaara. Naruto chuckled and made his way back out of the trees to face off with Kankuro again. "I sensed a presence on my first C-rank that even my Jonin sensei didn't notice, and you really think _you_ can hide from me?" he asked rhetorically.

Kankuro was surprised to hear that, but, when he thought about it, he really shouldn't have been; all he really knew about the blond in front of him was that he could have killed _Gaara_ of all people. "Maybe I can't hide," Kankuro said then, smirking. "But I don't really need to when I can defeat you without hiding, do I?"

Naruto shook his head in a way that silently screamed, "If you only knew." Kankuro just smirked at the blond's overconfidence and moved his hands to send Crow at the boy again. Crow flew at Naruto, mouth open. Naruto ducked under the puppet and kicked upward, weight supported on his arms. The puppet took the brunt of the attack on its torso, which shattered on impact. Obviously, Crow's arms, legs, and head were still deadly weapons, but its torso was now useless. Naruto ran at the puppet-master. As Kankuro ducked under Naruto's kick, the blond said softly, "I'll repair him for you after we're done here." Kankuro gave an appreciative nod in response.

Kankuro gave a low sweeping kick that made Naruto jump to avoid it, then the two faced off once again. This time, it was Kankuro who attacked. Naruto dodged frantically as Crow's limbs came flying at him, only to run straight into two shuriken flung by Kankuro himself. Naruto's arms were each hit just above the elbow. That was the signal.

In the next second, a lot happened all at once. Four figures hidden in the crowd leapt from their disguises to the roof of the Kage box, Orochimaru stood and grabbed Tsunade, kunai to her throat, a genjutsu was cast on the spectators, causing them to fall asleep, Kankuro flung the five pieces of Crow that were still usable toward the Kage box, seemingly aiming for Tsunade, Gaara rose to his feet and wrapped both Tsunade and Orochimaru's feet in the sand that had been behind Orochimaru's chair so that neither could move from where they stood, and close to thirty Leaf ANBU began moving through the crowd, killing anything that was awake and wearing a Sound headband.

While the Leaf ANBU exterminated the Sound invaders who had been hiding in the stands, Gaara stepped into the Kage box and glared at Orochimaru. "So, Gaara, you've made yourself known. What is the meaning of this?" the "Kazekage" snarled. "You were meant to aid the invasion, not impede me!"

Gaara just grinned before releasing Tsunade from his sand. At the same moment, Tsunade leaned forward and bit Orochimaru's hand, causing him to drop the kunai at her throat and allowing her to get away from him. Gaara quickly surrounded the snake Sannin with sand. Orochimaru ranted from within the sand coffin that so simple a move would not kill him, that he would escape it eventually, on and on. Gaara held up a hand and formed a fist. Orochimaru's rant suddenly ceased as the Sannin became the Ninin. Tsunade gave Gaara a wry smile. "That was anticlimactic," she commented. Shaking her head, she continued, "To think, one of the Sannin would be killed by a lowly Genin."

Gaara chuckled. "True, but I'm no ordinary Genin," he said. Tsunade nodded, granting his point. Meanwhile, on the roof of the Kage box, the Sound Four, as they were known, found themselves surrounded by Leaf ANBU and quickly surrendered. The red-haired boy reformed his sand into the gourd he carried on his back.

The rest of the Sound troops were quickly dispatched by Leaf ninja, and the "invasion" of the Leaf Village was over before it had really begun. The very few Sand ninja who had continued to fight against the Leaf despite Gaara's change of heart quickly surrendered or died as the entirety of the Leaf Village's military force bore down upon them.

One Might Guy addressed one Kakashi Hatake. "How many did you take down, Kakashi?" he asked.

Kakashi sighed. "Twenty-three," he answered.

Guy paused a moment to throw a final Sound ninja through a nearby wall. "That was my twenty-fifth," he said back. "Guess I win again, Kakashi!" He smiled wide, and light reflected off his teeth. Kakashi just sighed and shook his head. Guy chuckled. "I love that too-cool attitude of yours, Kakashi! It is why you are my eternal rival!"

As the two were slowly lowering themselves out of their ready stances, a man wearing red and with long white hair landed hard beside them. Kakashi blinked once. "Oh, hi Jiraiya," he said calmly.

Guy, on the other hand, leapt about a foot in the air. "Master Jiraiya!" he said excitedly. "It is an honor to finally meet you!" He shook the man's hand hard. Jiraiya eventually extracted his hand from the green-wearing Jonin's.

"Yes, you as well, Guy," he said back. "Kakashi, Guy, I was sent to fetch you two and bring you to the Kage box, so please, follow me."

Within minutes, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Naruto, Tsunade, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Guy were all in the Kage box and a silencing seal was in place to keep their conversation private. Tsunade spoke quietly, "We have a problem." Everyone came to attention at that. "Shikamaru is missing."

xxxxxx

Meanwhile, Baki was running toward the main gate of the Leaf Village with a human-shaped bundle under his arm. He was one of the very few Sand Jonin who had remained loyal to the "Kazekage" despite Gaara switching sides. Now, he was the only Sand ninja left who was brave enough or stupid enough to stand up against the jinchuriki. He had made his way to the waiting area for candidates and abducted one Shikamaru Nara. Now, he was running.

Shikamaru, meanwhile, was slowly waking up. Baki hadn't bothered to cast a sleeping jutsu on the already-asleep shadow-user. Suddenly, Baki tripped and landed flat on his face, leaving Shikamaru to roll away from the Jonin as the two landed hard on the ground. Shikamaru rolled to his feet quickly and faced the man. Baki rose and the two glared at each other. Neither wanted to make the first move. Shikamaru chuckled; the Sand Jonin had taken him to the ideal environment for him; they were surrounded by shadows.

Baki eventually made to attack Shikamaru, wind chakra building around him as he moved with the intent of cutting Shikamaru to bits as he had recently done to a certain Leaf Jonin who had seen him and Kabuto talking.

Shikamaru groaned; this was going to be such a drag! He reached out with his chakra and took control of as many shadows as he could in the immediate vicinity. Baki found himself being pushed around hither and thither by the shadows. Shikamaru snarled at the man. "You know, this is a total drag, but you really should have known better than to try to attack the Leaf Village! Every single one of us will put our lives on the line to stop you, regardless of our rank!" With that, the young boy began to send sharper shadows at the Jonin. Baki, unable to do much in the darkness of the forest, was pierced several times as he tried to throw wind blades at the young Nara, which were dodged easily.

Baki snarled. "Yes, you would put your lives on the line for your village, just as I am doing for mine!" he said back. With that, he ran at Shikamaru again, wind blades flying fast. Shikamaru, groaning that everything was a major drag, fell completely backward to dodge the blades, and sent a single shadow toward the running man at the same time. Baki suddenly froze.

"Shadow Possession, complete!" Shikamaru said smugly. "Now, until my comrades get here, why don't we have a little chat?" Baki snarled, but Shikamaru ignored him. Shikamaru moved backward a short distance, Baki imitating him, and sat on a rock, much to Baki's annoyance; the Jonin was forced to stand in the exact position Shikamaru was sitting in with absolutely _nothing_ to support him! "Look, Baki," Shikamaru said. "I know you think you're fighting for your village, but the man who you think is your Kazekage isn't, that was Orochimaru." Baki looked shocked at this. "Your Kazekage never made it to this village, he was killed on his way here."

"Okay, let's assume for the moment that I believe you," Baki said after a moment. "Why would you tell me this, and why would it matter? I was ordered to attack, that's all that matters!"

Shikamaru face-palmed. "Think for yourself, Baki! Do you really think Orochimaru would be true to his word and not betray your village the way he betrayed his own years ago? Come on, man, think!" he said exasperatedly. "Plus, even your own students are fighting against you, so why keep fighting when even _they_ don't think what you're doing is in the best interests of your village?"

Baki slowly nodded. "All right, I surrender," he said. Shikamaru promptly released the man from his Shadow Possession Jutsu, which resulted in his sore and tired legs giving way and Baki falling to the ground in a very undignified manner. Just then, Kakashi and Guy arrived on the scene with Pakkun leading them.

xxxxxx

Back in the arena, the crowd was waking up. Tsunade called out to them, "We apologize for the interruption! The previous match was called due to circumstances, and Kankuro forfeited, so Naruto will advance to the finals! Proctor, please begin the next match!"

The proctor nodded. "Hinata Hyuga and Rock Lee, please come down!" he yelled. When the two contestants were both on the ground of the arena, he called, "And now the final match of the semifinals...BEGINS!" That said, he jumped out of the way.

Hinata and Lee faced off, each in a ready stance, Hinata with her Byakugan blazing. Lee spoke first. "Lady Hinata, let us make this match as youthful and exciting as we can," he said to her.

Hinata smiled slightly; despite the way Neji always talked about Lee, Hinata rather liked the enthusiastic boy. She held out one hand to Lee, who moved forward to shake it. "Yes, Lee, let us give the spectators a show!" she said back. Both backed up again, and the match began.

Hinata moved first, her hands blazing with chakra. Lee dodged and deflected her attacks frantically, knowing that even a glancing blow could cause serious damage. Hinata smirked; this wasn't the typical fight for the finals of the Chunin Exams, but oh well. She went in for a low sweeping kick, which sent Lee spinning as it connected with his arm, which he had been balancing on after dodging her previous attack.

Lee rose to his feet after Hinata's attack and grinned at the girl. "I see now why you were able to defeat Neji," he said. Hinata just smirked. "All right then, my turn!" With that, Lee ran at Hinata, arms and legs flying quickly. Hinata dodged and blocked his attacks easily, but just then Lee put on a burst of speed. "Leaf Whirlwind!" he called out as his final kick connected with Hinata's cheek, sending the girl flying a few feet. She came to rest on her back.

Rising to her feet again, the girl breathed hard a few seconds and wiped blood from her mouth. She smiled at Lee and commented lightly, "A fine attack, Lee." Lee grinned and nodded. "But not good enough." She ran at him again, Byakugan active, hands flying quickly. Lee, unprepared for her to attack again so quickly or aggressively, was barely able to block or deflect her moves. Hinata made a single clone with neither word nor hand-sign, which formed a low-powered Rasengan and attacked the distracted Lee from behind. Lee was sent flying again, this time ending up buried in the far wall of the arena, dazed.

The proctor went to check on Lee. "Lee is unable to continue!" he called out. "Winner: Hinata Hyuga!"

Tsunade rose to her feet and called out, "This concludes the semifinal round of the Chunin Exams! We again ask that no one leave the arena until after the final round, but we will once again give you and the contestants a half hour to rest and recover before the finals." That said, she slumped into her chair, emotionally drained after the events of the day.

Jiraiya came up behind Tsunade and rested his hands on her shoulders. "Hey," he said simply. Tsunade looked up at her one remaining teammate and smiled tiredly. Jiraiya knelt in front of her and took her hand gently in his. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I think I'll be fine," Tsunade answered after a moment. "Thanks." Jiraiya just patted her hand. Tsunade let loose a few tears. "I know I shouldn't be sad, but he was still my teammate!"

Jiraiya raised himself up and hugged Tsunade. Both of the remaining Sannin sobbed for a few moments for the loss of their old comrade. Jiraiya calmed down first, then held Tsunade while she cried herself out. As he pulled back, he kissed her on the cheek playfully. Tsunade looked at him in surprise. Jiraiya flinched away, fear evident; he was expecting to get beat for that. Tsunade just smiled, then leaned in and kissed Jiraiya's cheek.

Jiraiya grinned and stood a small distance behind and to the side of Tsunade. He would remain there until the finals were completed. _"Maybe everything will turn out all right after all,"_ the old sage thought to himself.

A/N: And there it is! Chapter 13 is done! Only two more chapters left, for those of you who are keeping track. The next chapter will wrap up the bulk of the story, and 15 will be a post-timeskip epilogue, so we're really that close to being done. I hope to post the epilogue on Valentine's Day, so yeah, thanks again to everyone who stuck with this fic so long!


	14. A Good Idea

Chapter 14

Jiraiya and Tsunade smiled down on the arena as Naruto and Hinata squared off. They knew that, even though almost no one had expected these two to end up in the finals, _this_ would be the fight everyone would remember for years to come. True, these two were a couple now, but Jiraiya and Tsunade both knew that they would still put on a hell of a show.

Naruto smiled at Hinata as the proctor called for the match to begin. "Let's give them a good show, Hinata," he said quietly. Hinata returned his smile and nodded. Naruto smiled and moved toward Hinata, who quietly activated her Byakugan.

Naruto's attacks were quick and powerful, but none were intended to be lethal. Hinata dodged some, blocked others, and deflected still others. After a few moments of this, Naruto got an attack through, seemingly landing a blow on Hinata's face. Hinata just smiled and began to turn. "Rotation!" she called out. Naruto was surprised as her chakra sent him flying away. Having not expected this, he landed on his back.

Naruto grinned. "Finally got it down, huh?" he asked. Hinata gave him a cocky grin and nodded in return. "All right, then. No more holding back!" That said, he formed his favorite hand sign, and, moments later, the arena contained no less than a hundred Naruto clones. Hinata grinned and formed the same sign, ten clones of her appearing in a small circle facing outward. Naruto and his clones grinned and ran toward the Hinata circle. As each one came within range, Hinata and her clones attacked with one Gentle Fist strike after another, each of her clones dispelling at least five of Naruto's before being dispelled.

By the time Hinata's clones had all been dispelled, Naruto only had about a dozen left himself. Hinata sighed. "These clones are nowhere near as good at Gentle Fist as I am!" she said, her frustration obvious.

Naruto chuckled. "Guess I'm still better at the Shadow Clone Jutsu than you are, Hime," he commented playfully.

Hinata glared at the Naruto who had spoken, then held out a single hand and sent what looked like a needle of chakra out of her palm at that one, which was hit directly in the heart...and dispelled a second later. Hinata turned to a different Naruto, the one she thought was the original. "Maybe so," she told him, continuing, "but my chakra control is still better." She gave him a grin to let him know she wasn't being mean.

Naruto grinned, then he and his remaining clones ran at Hinata. Hinata focused her chakra and began using her chakra needles to dispel the clones. Soon, only the originals were left. Hinata turned to Naruto and began attacking him. Naruto dodged and deflected her attacks with seeming ease, but inside he was frantically thinking, trying to come up with a way to get around her Gentle Fist. Hinata thrust with one hand to hit Naruto's face, which he bent backward to get under then grinned. His position was finally perfect to get around her attack.

Grabbing Hinata's still-extended hand at the wrist, he yanked her further off balance and planted his foot into her gut. Using his odd position for leverage, he sent her flying over top of him. Hinata managed to flip over in the air so she landed on all fours and slid a bit rather than landing on her head, which she would have otherwise.

Grinning up at her long-time love, Hinata commented, "So you got me once. It doesn't matter, my Gentle Fist will work eventually."

Naruto shook his head, knowing she meant more than she said. "Maybe it would if I gave you the time, but if you can't get near me, you can't use it!" he told her. Rapidly forming hand-signs, he inhaled deeply. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" he yelled out, exhaling hard. His breath, which he had charged with a relatively small amount of his chakra, became a powerful gust of wind. The gust slammed into Hinata, who charged her own chakra into her feet, preventing herself from being blown away by it as she stuck to the ground. Naruto grinned. "Oh, yeah?" He formed more hand-signs and exhaled again. This time, his breath was formed into several gusts which formed into blades as he called out, "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" Hinata concentrated her chakra around her body, barely protecting herself from the chakra-charged wind.

Meanwhile, in the stands, Temari snarled, "He stole that from me!"

Gaara patted her arm and told her, "He wouldn't have bothered to learn it if he didn't think it was worth his time. You should feel honored, Sister." Temari chuckled and smiled at Gaara, who hesitantly returned it; he still wasn't quite used to this whole smiling thing.

Naruto chuckled as he watched his attack do nothing to Hinata. Hinata grinned when the wind finally stopped. "My turn," she said, her active Byakugan and the slightly sadistic tone to her voice making her look and sound very menacing. Naruto grinned. Hinata ran through a series of hand-signs and held out a palm. "Water Style: Ripping Torrent!" she called out. Water appeared from the air around her and formed into a whirlpool-like formation on her palm. Turning her hand toward Naruto, she threw it. As it moved, it grew as Hinata continued to feed the jutsu chakra. Naruto charged his feet with chakra, then jumped just as the attack reached him. He barely cleared the torrent of water. As he came down, he used his chakra to run along the top of the water. Hinata, surprised at this tactic, was unable to dodge his punch, which connected hard with her cheek. Hinata flew to the side and rolled a few times before stopping. Once she had stopped, she slowly climbed back to her feet and turned toward Naruto once again. Said blond was standing with a confident smirk on his face, arms crossed.

Hinata giggled slightly. "Oh, come now, Naruto. You can't mean to tell me you really think you know every jutsu I've learned," she said. Naruto's arms fell to his side and his smirk became less confident. Thinking hard for a moment, he made to jump, but he was too late. The Hinata in front of him dispelled just as an arm reached from the ground beside Naruto's foot and grabbed his ankle. "Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!" Hinata's voice called out as she yanked Naruto into the ground up to his neck. Naruto found, after a moment of struggling, that he couldn't move at all. He was not amused.

Glaring up at Hinata, who was now standing above him, he growled, "That was a cheap move, Hinata."

Hinata just giggled as she knelt down beside his head. "Yeah, I know, but we are ninja after all," she told him. Leaning down, she kissed his forehead and whispered, "Besides, I had to end the match somehow, and I didn't want to hurt you, so this was the best thing for me to do."

Naruto smiled slightly. "Love you," he whispered.

Hinata blushed. "Love you, too," she answered. Rising, she turned to the proctor. "You can call this one, he can't continue like that," she told the man.

Said proctor moved to check on Naruto. Seeing that the blond couldn't move, the man nodded. "Since Naruto cannot continue, this match is over. Winner, Hinata Hyuga!" he called out.

At the announcement of Hinata's victory, everyone in the stands burst into cheers. Hinata blushed bright red as she turned and released Naruto from her jutsu. Naruto chuckled and made a sweeping gesture at the spectators. "Take a bow, Hime! You're the star today!" he exclaimed. Hinata blushed even deeper, then smiled at the fans and bowed deeply. Everyone cheered all the louder for her.

Just then, Shikamaru appeared seemingly from nowhere beside Naruto. "Hey, Naruto, Hinata," he greeted them. "Just wanted to let you two know, I'm throwing a party for everyone who was in the finals tonight. It'll be at my place at seven, so I hope to see you guys then."

Naruto turned a questioning look to Hinata, who nodded quietly. Naruto smiled at Shikamaru. "Sure, we'll be there," he said.

Shikamaru rested a hand on Naruto's shoulder and his other on Hinata's, grinning. "Good, good. See you tonight then," he said, then jumped up into the stands, presumably to let the rest of his guests know.

"You think it's a good idea for me to go to that?" Naruto asked.

Hinata knew what he meant. "I do, Naruto," she said. "After all, if Shikamaru was going to reject you, he wouldn't have invited you to his home."

Naruto nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess that's true," he said quietly. He hugged Hinata briefly, then the two made their way out of the arena.

xxxxxx

The Nara clan home was in an uproar by half-past-six that night. Shikamaru and his parents had invited the five rookies who were still alive and not on Naruto's old team – Shikamaru didn't want Sakura to ruin things, as he knew she would – and they were now running around frantically trying to get everything ready for Naruto and Hinata's arrival at seven. Contained within Shikamaru's foyer were Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, Hiruzen, Guy, Shikaku and Yoshino Nara, Shikamaru himself, Choji, Ino, Shino, Kiba, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Lee, Neji, and Tenten, all of whom had been hard at work for a solid half an hour already and would likely be so for another half hour at least. They all hoped that they would be ready by the time Naruto and Hinata got there.

The room itself was almost unrecognizable. Spread across the top of the room, a banner declared, "Congratulations!" Streamers were all over the place, most of them orange and lavender in color. Above the front door was a rather large bucket of confetti that would tip onto whoever came through the door next. The ceiling was almost invisible behind the festively colored balloons that floated there. Shikamaru sighed. _"This is such a drag. You're lucky you're worth all this trouble, Naruto,"_ he thought to himself. The shadow-user had never thought about Naruto all that much until shortly after their planning session a few days ago. After everyone else left, Tsunade had asked Shikamaru to stay behind...

Flashback

"_Yes, Lady Tsunade?" Shikamaru said._

_Tsunade knitted her fingers together under her chin and looked at the boy. "You are aware that we are preparing now for the upcoming invasion solely because we have been warned of it, correct?" she asked. Shikamaru nodded gravely. He was fully aware that, had they not known, the coming fight would likely have been far worse for them. "Good. Now, I want to inform you of something else. The only reason we are aware of this is Naruto."_

_Shikamaru looked surprised. "Naruto? Really?" he asked. "I mean, I know he's not showing his full potential, but how did he bring _this_ about?"_

_Tsunade chuckled. "He almost killed Gaara, which brought him around to our side. Don't ask, it's complicated, but trust me when I say that Naruto and Naruto alone is the reason we are going to be so well-prepared for this," she told him. Shikamaru nodded slowly. Tsunade was glad to see he realized what that meant. "Now, there's something else you should know. Naruto and Hinata plan to get married. I know it's soon for them, but they're mature enough to make that decision. So, what I want you to do is to quietly inform the others of this, though _not_ Sasuke or Sakura, and see if you can't do something for them. They deserve it."_

Flashback End

Shikamaru had done as he was directed. He had told Choji first, then Ino, then the three of them had informed the rest of the people who were currently in the Nara home. This party was partly a celebration of their victory over the Sound Village, partly a celebration of Naruto and Hinata's victory in the Chunin Exam Finals, and partly a celebration of their engagement. Shikamaru smiled. _"Yes, Naruto, you are indeed lucky,"_ he thought. _"You've got a hell of a woman, and tonight you'll discover that you really do have some good, true friends in this village."_ With that thought, he turned his attention back to preparing for the party. It might be a drag getting ready, but it'd be even more of a drag if things weren't ready in time.

xxxxxx

Naruto was worried. It wasn't often that he got really truly nervous about anything, but tonight he was. He was going to a party for the first time in a very long time, and he was very worried that he was going to get those same looks from the people there. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked Hinata for the fiftieth time.

Hinata sighed. She knew why Naruto was so worried, and she wished she could comfort him. "Yes, I'm sure, Naruto," she told him softly. "Shikamaru's smart. He won't have people there who will be mean to you. And besides, I'll be right there with you."

Naruto smiled as he squeezed her hand gently in his. "Thanks, Hinata. That means a lot," he said, his voice full of emotion. Hinata just squeezed his hand back and smiled at him. Sighing again, he checked the time. "Well, it's time. Let's go." His voice was resigned. That said, the two left their small but comfortable apartment and made their way to the Nara home. Naruto knocked on the door at 6:59.

Shikamaru smiled. They had gotten done just in time. "Come in!" he called out.

Naruto opened the door slowly. To his great surprise, a huge group of people jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!" as he and Hinata walked in. From above, a shower of confetti rained down on them, and everyone was smiling.

Naruto turned to Shikamaru. "What's all this about?" he asked.

Shikamaru smiled in return. "Lady Tsunade told me about you two being engaged. Plus, we protected the village today, and you two were the winners of the Chunin Exam Finals. We're all here to celebrate all of that," he told the blond.

Naruto looked around. Most of the people who were there he wasn't too surprised to see, but one he was. "Kakashi-sensei?" he asked hesitantly.

Kakashi came forward and looked at Naruto, sadness, and a single tear, evident in his eye. Suddenly, the silver-haired man dropped to his hands and knees in front of Naruto. "I'm so sorry, Naruto," he sobbed. "I'm so sorry for how I acted toward you. I should have been there for you from the start, and I wasn't. Your father was my sensei and like a father to me, so I should have been the one who was there for you most of all...and I failed you...I failed your father. I'm so sorry, Naruto. I beg your forgiveness." Clasping his hands together, he begged, "Please, give me another chance to be there for you."

Naruto was in shock. Kakashi, the man who had been assigned as his sensei, the man who had rejected him, the man who had hurt him more than most, was on his _knees_ begging for his forgiveness. He reached down and took Kakashi's clasped hands in his and hefted the man to his feet. Kakashi refused to meet Naruto's eyes, closing his own and looking at the floor instead. "Kakashi-sensei," Naruto spoke softly. "You hurt me deeply for many years with your rejection. You hurt me more than most, really, because you should have been there for me as my sensei if nothing else."

Kakashi nodded. "I know, Naruto, I know," he said back. "I make no excuse for my behavior. I was wrong, and I'm sorry."

Naruto nodded. "I can tell," he answered slowly, thoughtfully. "Yes, Kakashi-sensei, I'll forgive you." Then, smiling, he added, "I always wondered what it'd be like to have a big brother."

Kakashi looked up at the blond's words, shock evident in his face. He slowly opened his arms to the boy, who willingly ran into them. The two embraced, a sign of true forgiveness. Kakashi whispered, "I will never abandon you again, Little Brother."

Naruto chuckled slightly, tears in his eyes, and whispered back, "I know, Big Brother." Everyone erupted into cheers, and the party began in earnest.

Naruto spent a short while getting to know Kakashi more, during which Hinata talked with Kurenai, whom she hadn't seen in a while. She encouraged her old sensei to pursue Asuma, on whom Kurenai had harbored a crush for some time. The young couple rejoined when Tsunade proposed a toast to them. Everyone drank to them, then Naruto, with his usual unpredictability, swept Hinata onto the dance floor. Soon, everyone was dancing, either with a partner or alone. It didn't seem to matter, everyone was just happy to be alive that night.

It was several hours later before Naruto and Hinata finally extracted themselves from the party and made their way home. As they entered their apartment, Naruto quipped, "You still think it was a good idea to go tonight?"

Hinata giggled. "I sure do, Naruto. I sure do."


	15. Epilogue:  A New Beginning

Epilogue

Six Years Later

Hinata smiled brightly. "I can't believe it's finally here!" she said, her voice almost a song. Her long white gown barely contrasted with her pale skin or eyes, but her rosy cheeks and the joy in every aspect of her countenance made her seem to glow like the finest jewel.

Hanabi, watching her older sister, giggled slightly. "It's been a while since I saw you this happy, Hinata," she commented. Hinata smiled at her younger sister and simply nodded, humming to herself. Hanabi shook her head at her sister's antics. "I'm glad you can finally be like this again. It's been too long."

Hinata nodded, thinking back to all the dark times she, Naruto, her family, and, really, the whole village had gone through over the last few years. "Yes, it has been too long. But today, it will all be worth it!" she told Hanabi. Hanabi smiled, and Hinata spun once. "How do I look?"

Hanabi sighed; Hinata had asked that probably five times by now. "You look beautiful, Hinata, as always," Hanabi answered with a smile. "Naruto's going to lose it when he sees you."

Hinata blushed slightly. "You really think so?" she asked. Hanabi nodded confidently, giggling at her sister's blush. "I hope he thinks I'm pretty."

Hanabi shook her head. "Oh, come on, I'm sure he thinks you're far more than pretty by now...if he didn't, I doubt this would be happening," she commented, her voice taking on a long-suffering quality. Hinata had been saying things like that for days now...it seemed her old confidence issues had returned for some reason. Hanabi came and grabbed Hinata by the hand. "Come on," she said. "I know what you need." With that, she dragged the sputtering Hinata from the room.

Hiashi smiled when he saw his two daughters coming down the hall toward him. "Ready, Hinata?" he asked her, tears in his eyes as he looked at her.

Hinata sighed. "Ready as I'll ever be, I guess," she said, shooting Hanabi a glare. Hanabi simply rolled her eyes and took off down the hall. Hinata turned to her father again and smiled, clutching her bouquet to her chest carefully with both hands; it had been in her free hand when Hanabi dragged her to Hiashi's side.

Hanabi made her way to the side door of the chapel and joined Ino and Tenten at the front of the room. She sighed and told the other two, "Hinata's got the worst jitters I've ever seen. If I didn't know better, I'd swear she was getting cold feet!"

Ino shook her head. "She's just nervous. Who wouldn't be?"

Tenten nodded in agreement. "After all, she is marrying the love of her life today!" The three girls sighed dreamily; really, this was a momentous occasion.

Naruto, standing on the other side of the altar from the three girls, smiled at them. It had taken a while to make friends with them, but he had done it. Once they accepted him and realized he wasn't the fox, it wasn't all that hard, really. Now, they were Hinata's bridesmaids, and Hanabi was her Maid of Honor. Chuckling, he turned to Shino, his best man. "Thanks for being here, Shino," he said softly. Shino simply nodded. Naruto grinned, drew himself up straighter than usual, and droned, "It is only logical to assist a friend when he is in need of you." Grinning teasingly at Shino, he asked, "Am I right?"

Shino sighed. "Indeed that is true, Naruto, but I am here not as a friend assisting you, but as a friend celebrating your good fortune. Today, you become a married man, and Hinata becomes your wife. This is not a day when you require assistance, this is a day when all should celebrate with you," he told the blond.

Naruto chuckled. "Thanks, Shino, regardless, it means a lot to me that you're here," he said, holding out a hand. Shino shook the extended hand, and the two returned to waiting for the bride to arrive. As they turned, the doors opened a second time, this time to admit Hiashi and Hinata.

Naruto looked on in shock. Hinata's long white gown fit her perfectly, and her normally-concealed curves were put on full display today. She was always beautiful to him, she was the first one to really accept and love him, after all, but today she was absolutely _gorgeous._ Hinata seemed to absolutely glow with happiness as she and her father made their way down the aisle toward him. Naruto smiled and thanked any god that might be listening, not for the first time, that he had been able to get Hiashi to agree to a less-than-traditional wedding. It would have been extremely awkward to have a traditional wedding when there was no one to be there as his family.

Naruto smiled as Hinata joined him at the altar. He could see her face through her veil quite easily; no fabric could ever conceal the glow she was emanating today. Naruto's eyes met Hiashi's briefly, and the two men nodded to one another. Hiashi passed Hinata's hand to Naruto solemnly. Naruto took it tenderly and returned his loving gaze to Hinata. Hinata beamed at her long-time love as she saw the tender look on his face.

The Third Hokage stepped forward and smiled at everyone in the room. As he spoke of the love that bound Naruto and Hinata and the future they could look forward to together, Naruto looked over the faces of the guests briefly. Hinata's side was filled to the brim with her family, so their friends were on his side. Shikamaru, Temari, Kakashi, Gaara, Kankuro, Choji, Lee, Kiba, and, surprisingly, Neji grinned at him. Surprising no one, Lee had steady streams of tears running from his eyes. Surprising those around him, though, _Neji_ was also openly crying! Neji had told his family he wanted to sit with the rest of them as a show of his acknowledgement of Naruto, and now he was openly showing just how happy he was for both the bride and groom as his tears flowed freely.

Naruto returned his gaze to Hinata and smiled as Hiruzen asked, "And do you, Naruto, take Hinata Hyuga as your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to hold, to honor and cherish, for better or worse, till death do you part?"

Naruto smiled, his eyes full of joy. "I do," he answered.

Hiruzen turned to Hinata. "And do you, Hinata, take Naruto Uzumaki as your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to hold, to honor and cherish, for better or worse, till death do you part?"

Hinata blushed, smiled, and nodded enthusiastically. "I do," she said happily.

Hiruzen smiled at them. "Then I now pronounce you man and wife." Turning to Naruto, he added, "You may kiss the bride."

Naruto turned to him and teased, "I don't need you to tell me that!" Then he turned and raised Hinata's veil. Hinata smiled up at him, and the two leaned together. Their lips met, and time seemed to freeze for them. This was the moment they had waited so long for, and now it was finally happening! After a time that felt like an eternity yet was still far too short, the newlyweds parted. Naruto smiled to everyone as they cheered in celebration. Hinata turned her back to the crowd and threw her bouquet. A Branch House Hyuga caught it, and most of the girls squealed joyfully.

Naruto took his wife's hand in his and the two made their way out of the chapel. As they made it outside, the two began to run. They both wanted to get home as soon as they could. There was a small reception planned, and they had to get changed before going to it; it wouldn't do to mess up their wedding clothes, after all!

An Hour Later

Naruto and Hinata arrived to the reception just in time for the toast; perfect timing, so far as they were concerned. Hiashi rose from his spot at the head of the table and spoke. "You are embarking on a brand new adventure today," he told them. "You will have many hardships, I'm sure, but if you stick together, your bond will see you through them all. May you have many good days, filled with love and joy, and may your lives be long and prosperous." He raised his glass to them, and everyone drank to the newlyweds.

Naruto smiled and took Hinata's hand in his again. "Thank you, Father," he said softly. Hiashi sat down, and, moments later, a bunch of people dressed as waiters came out and served a huge feast to the guests. Naruto smiled when he saw Teuchi among them. He gave the ramen chef a nod, and the man returned it with a joyful smile.

The food was great, the company was enjoyable, and everyone felt the night was a great success in general. By the time the night was winding down, everyone was exhausted, but extremely happy. By the time Naruto and Hinata left the reception and made their way home, it was nearing midnight. Naruto carried Hinata into their home and into their bedroom, which they had been sharing for many years. Tonight was different, though. Tonight, they both knew they would make love for the first time.

As Naruto joined his wife on the bed, he kissed her gently and smiled at her. "Good evening, Mrs. Uzumaki," he commented, "and welcome to the rest of your life." Hinata just smiled, then kissed Naruto deeply. That night, the two were joined, body, heart, and soul. It was a night neither would ever forget, and it was the perfect start to their new life together.


End file.
